Anyone see this last night? http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/nasa-ro...-video-6118627 I can only imagine the crap storm that will be descending on Orbital Sciences........ NASA doesn't take failures like that lightly!
I know what you mean. Rocket science should be second nature to NASA today. Something like this would be a significant failure. Not sure if they came up with a reason yet, it certainly wasn't frost this time.
There is already speculation that the surplus 1970s Soviet rocket engines that Orbital Sciences use to power the first stage of Antares might be to blame.
Now we have to pay shipping for the Russians to haul food & supplies to the Space station. Maybe soon, we'll be paying the Chinese for shipping people & cargo.
Im sure he is secretly grinning over this ready to jump in and save the day. SpaceX is Orbital Science' biggest competitor and he has criticised their usage of "old" technology before.