29 October 2014
Antares Explodes At Wallops. Explosion Heard/Seen for 50 Miles.
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Here is how the explosion looked as WBOC covered the Antares launch and explosion live. This was likely one of the largest rocket explosions ever at Wallops. The reason is that it happened with a fully fueled vehicle, carrying 5,000 pounds into orbit. Most other failures at Wallops were either non-orbital launches, or carrying much lighter payloads.
The blast lit up the clouds and was seen across almost all of Delmarva, and the sound of the explosion reached well into Delaware. I was on the set with our anchors Steve Hammond, and Paul Butler, and we were covering the launch live. You can see 5 mins. of that coverage below:
WBOC-TV 16, Delmarvas News Leader, FOX 21 –
I heard the Range Safety officer blew the rocket up after it veered off-course. That is standard procedure, but if they had waited to see if it was going out to sea or returning to shore, they might not have had time to react before it could do worse damage.