Washington, October 28 (EFE) .- The US space agency (NASA) remains confident in domestic private companies to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) despite an explosion Tuesday unmanned rocket.
“What happened today did not discourage us in our efforts to expand our already successful ability to send cargo from the ISS US soil,” said William Gerstenmaier said in a statement, Deputy Head of the Board of Human Exploration and Operations at NASA.
A rocket Antares private company Orbital Sciences Corporation, with more than 2 tons of cargo to the International Space Station on Tuesday exploded seconds after launch from the small base having NASA at Wallops Island (Virginia).
The accident is the first since the US began to privatize the material transport to the ISS after running out own vehicles to send cargo and crew to the space station when it concluded its shuttle program in 2011.
Orbital Sciences is, along with SpaceX, one of the two private companies contracted by NASA to carry materials to the ISS, while Boeing and SpaceX will transport US astronauts from 2017 from national soil, putting an end to the dependency on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA and Orbital explained joint press conference in investigating the causes of the accident and wait until Wednesday to determine the daylight the damage to the launch pad.
The Antares rocket was carrying Cygnus capsule, together worth more than $ 200 million, carrying over 2 tons (5,000 pounds) of material replenishment, such as food and scientific experiments, but NASA says the six astronauts on the ISS in no danger of running out of supplies.
“While NASA is frustrated because the third refueling mission failed Orbital Sciences, will proceed with another attempt once we have understood the mishap today,” Gerstenmaier said.
“Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary ability in his first two missions to the station this year, and we know we can repeat that success. Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult task and learn from each success and every setback, “he said.
Meanwhile, the executive vice president of Orbital, Frank Culbertson, announced that the company will not make any new release to know what went wrong Tuesday and solve the problem.
“It’s too early to know the details of what happened. We will conduct a thorough and immediate investigation to determine the cause of this failure and what steps you must take to avoid a repeat incident, “Culbertson said
.” As soon as we understand the causes begin the necessary work to will fly again to serve our customers and the space program in the nation, “he added.
The company referred to the event as” a catastrophic failure in the vehicle, “but so far has not transcended more information about what happened.
This was the fourth mission of Cygnus, including the test flight was in 2013, and the first night launch rocket Antares.
The launch It was originally scheduled for Monday but was suspended because a ship entered the security perimeter of several kilometers established around the platform from which it departed the rocket.
The Cygnus capsule would have reached the space station Sunday, November 2.
Orbital Sciences signed a hired 1,900 million from NASA to carry eight missions to supply unmanned with Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule.
For its part SpaceX, created by the founder of the electronic payment system PayPal, has also awarded a contract for $ 1,600 million twelve missions with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, which has already begun to operar.EFE
cg-elv / fg
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