Spectators Observe Antares Explosion

More incredible footage filmed by spectators shows the moment the Antares rocket exploded during a recent launch. Private spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp. is starting to piece together the timeline of events leading up to the explosion of its Antares rocket just after liftoff on Tuesday evening (Oct. 28). Orbital Sciences is still in the process of investigating the root cause of the Antares rocket failure. No one was hurt in the explosion, but the rocket was carrying an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft expected to deliver supplies to the International Space Station for NASA when the accident occurred. According to an Orbital update released Thursday (Oct. 30), the rocket seemed to perform normally until about 15 seconds after launch, when some as-yet-unknown variable caused the rocket to catastrophically fail.