[Colonol Dekker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29812139

Thank goodness it was unmanned, I get that it's primarily unmanned. Hashtag just saying.

[MP-Ryan]

Quoth someone at Orbital Sciences Corp earlier today. "Ooops.   ****."

Aside:  That's one spectacular explosion.

[Beskargam]

that's a very bad quote, yet highly amusing

[Kopachris]

Read the thread title and thought I'd get to see a supernova in the daytime sky later.  Not quite a supernova, but still a brilliant explosion.  Thank [insert deity] it was unmanned.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Read the thread title and thought I'd get to see a supernova in the daytime sky later.

Same here, I was already preparing a Sathanas fleet joke as the thread loaded

Any news as to what went wrong?

[karajorma]

Read the thread title and thought I'd get to see a supernova in the daytime sky later.

Me too. I know it is a supergiant but off-hand I have no idea how long it has left before we can expect it.

[watsisname]

Yep, same here.
First reaction:  "Wait, really?  How is this the first place that I hear about it?  How old is this post?"
Second reaction:  "Dammit, it's going to be overcast and rainy here for like the next six ****ing months ****ing Pacific Northwest arrrgh."
"Oh, unmanned rocket explosion.  NEAT-O.  I mean-- aw that's unfortunate.  Oooh, look at all the swirly smoke trails!"

[deathfun]

Someone obviously didn't run enough simulations in Kerbal Space Program

[Goober5000]

When I heard about the accident, I immediately thought of the AJ-26 engine explosion on the test stand earlier this year.  There was an investigation, an inspection of the entire engine stock, and a delay of the Orb-2 Antares flight.  Eventually Orb-2 flew successfully in July.

Then I watched the Orb-3 launch video.  You can see a brightening of the exhaust plume, followed by an explosion at the base of the rocket.  Although there was a lot of fire, the rocket remained essentially intact until it hit the ground.  That looks a lot like an engine explosion to me.

Obviously we'll need to await the results of the investigation to learn the root cause, but if it does turn out to be a problem with the AJ-26, that would raise the question of why it wasn't found during the earlier stand-down.  (It has unfortunate echoes of the most recent two Taurus XL launches which failed in the same way.  In those cases, it wasn't an explosion but rather a failure to separate the fairing.)

[Klaustrophobia]

well goddamn.  that's a lot of fire.

[Mr. Vega]

Dammit, I looked at the title and thought for a second that the real Antares had exploded.

[StarSlayer]

Hey I didn't know a HD version of Kerbal Space Program was in the works!

[Lorric]

Dammit, I looked at the title and thought for a second that the real Antares had exploded.

We couldn't be having that. We kind of need Antares for BtA, that would throw a massive monkeywrench into the works. So that would just not do.

[Mongoose]

Hey I didn't know a HD version of Kerbal Space Program was in the works!

All I could think of while watching was what kind of huge grin Jeb would have had on his face through the whole thing.

[Colonol Dekker]

I prefer bills terror face...

[Charismatic]

I feel bad about the state of our current space age tech. Cant send up rockets to the ISS. Cant launch private space corp jets either. How will we ever get out to space to start the Terran Vasudan war?

[Lorric]

Hey, don't worry. We've still got over 300 years! It was only 100 years and change ago that the Wright Brothers got their plane off the ground.

[watsisname]

The largest fundamental problem in space flight is still high-thrust propulsion being achieved with conventional combustion engines.  We need a friggin space elevator!  (Leaving aside obvious engineering and economics issues that this raises.)

If only reality worked like in the Gurren Lagann universe, and we could achieve whatever we want just by believing hard enough.

[Dragon]

We should have been going to space on nuclear atomic engines with chemical assistance, with single-stage, multi-use torchship rockets, not some pure-chemical disintegrating totem poles.

[Goober5000]

I feel bad about the state of our current space age tech. Cant send up rockets to the ISS. Cant launch private space corp jets either.

Rubbish.  Orbital Sciences has a new engine on deck to replace the unreliable one.  Virgin Galactic has a new spaceplane under construction and the accident is looking like pilot error.  I expect both companies to be back in the swing of things next year.