Shares in Orbital Sciences fell almost 15% in after-hours trading as it investigates an Antares rocket failure that blew up nearly 2.2 tonnes of NASA cargo shortly after take-off.
The supplies and scientific experiments it was carrying were destined for…
Shares in Orbital Sciences fell almost 15% in after-hours trading as it investigates an Antares rocket failure that blew up nearly 2.2 tonnes of NASA cargo shortly after take-off.
The supplies and scientific experiments it was carrying were destined for the International Space Station, although NASA has said the crew on board the craft are in no danger of running out of food or other critical items.
It is the third ISS cargo mission that Orbital has launched this year and the first failure since the space agency turned to private players to resupply the station. The other private company under NASA’s commercial resupply programme is SpaceX, which already has four such missions under its belt.
A Russian Soyuz rocket launched earlier today to resupply the ISS.
Orbital said no one was injured in the crash and property damage is limited to the south end of Wallops Island, Virginia, where it launched from.
“It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” said Frank Culbertson, general manager of Orbital’s advanced programmes division, in a statement soon after the explosion.
“As we begin to gather information, our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations. We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident.
“As soon as we understand the cause we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation’s space programme.”
NASA said it was disappointed with the failure but will facilitate Orbital’s next attempt once it has figured out the cause of the crash.
William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA’s human exploration and operations directorate, said: “Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success.
“Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback. Today’s launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station.”
The launch had been due to take place on Monday but was scrubbed after a boat floated too close to the pad just minutes before the Antares was due to lift off.
Orbital is currently in the midst of a US$5bn merger with US aerospace and defence group ATK, combining its small-to-medium satellite and launch products with the latter’s rocket propulsion, composite structures and space power systems.
The company announced yesterday that it has arranged a special meeting for its shareholders to vote on the deal for 9 December.
The merger has been unanimously approved by both boards but also requires the nod from ATK’s shareholders and is subject to regulatory approvals. They expect to wrap up the deal by the end of 2014 or January 2015.
Orbital’s shares had fallen 14.88% to US$25.85 in after-hours trading as SatelliteFinance went to press. They had closed up 2.9% to US$30.37 in regular trading on Tuesday prior to the rocket failure.
Planetary Resources loses first satellite
Tuesday’s Antares disaster claimed another victim in US asteroid mining start-up Planetary Resources, which had its first satellite onboard the doomed rocket.
Its Arkyd 3 (A3) cubesat was to be taken to LEO to serve as a test vehicle for the venture, which would later launch Arkyd-100 scouts to hunt for mineable asteroids.
However, Planetary Resources said the failure will not affect its development schedule, and that it has contracted ride-share specialists Spaceflight Services to launch a second demonstration satellite, Arkyd 6 (A6), on a US commercial launch vehicle scheduled for Q3 2015.
“The A3 is the first example of our strategy to ‘use space as our testbed’, and to tolerate failures by building success into the development path,” a spokesman told SatelliteFinance.
“With the A3, the Planetary Resources’ team achieved most of our objectives when we delivered the spacecraft to the launch integration site; and for the past few months, we have been hard at work on our next vehicle, the A6.”
