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A supply rocket carrying cargo and experiments to the ISS exploded shortly after liftoff. NASA and Orbital Sciences (the company operating the rocket) have not released any information about what may have caused the incident, pending further investigation.
The mission was unmanned, and all personnel are safe and accounted for. The extent of the damage to the launch facility has not yet been determined.
Phil Plait, author of the Bad Astronomy blog speculates that the 60s-70s era refurbished Russian engines the vehicle used will come under heavy scrutiny.
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ISS Resupply Rocket Explodes Shortly after Launch
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ANN JILLIAN'S HAIR makes LONI ANDERSON'S HAIR look like RICARDO
MONTALBAN'S HAIR!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Leebert on Wednesday October 29 2014, @01:22PM
When rockets blow up or payloads fail to be delivered, rocket companies don't necessarily go out of business. My expectation is that Orbital will continue to provide launches if they can conclusively determine what went wrong and implement a fix that is convincing.
As you note, it's not even certain yet that the NK-33 was at fault. If this were a Falcon 9, I think the general reaction would have been much more along the lines of: "Well, that's rocket science; new designs have flaws sometimes. They'll just have to fix it."
And also as you observed, it is in NASA's best interest to not be beholden to one contractor. As such, I fully expect that they will make every effort to get Orbital back on its feet. And, of course, there's more than just NASA and Orbital who are interested; the states of Virginia and Maryland have a good bit of investment at stake in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
Anyway, the point being that I don't think it's all doom and gloom. An unfortunate setback? Yes. But not at all the end of the line for Orbital.
OBDisclaimer: NASA contractor with no specific knowledge of anything related to this incident.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 29 2014, @03:30PM
To your point. OS will probably 'be fine'.
Now if OS is a 'bet the farm' on every launch. Then yeah they have a big financial problem. If not then they will fix it and move on with a somewhat higher cost of running the show.