NASA Destroys Launcher

A rocket carrying the NASA HyBolt Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition experiment and the SOAREX sub-orbital re-entry experimental package was detonated by NASA engineers 27 seconds into launch on Friday when it veered off course. The space agency took the step to ensure public safety.

The launcher, developed by Alliant Techsystems Inc (ATK), had reached a height of between 11,000 and 12,000 feet after the 5:10 a.m. launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia when it was destroyed. It was set to a challenging suborbital trajectory – reaching an altitude of 370 kilometers. It is not yet clear why the rocket strayed off course.

Most of the wreckage is supposed to have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean, although a resident of Modest Town reported debris starting a fire on Assawoman Island. Officials have warned that debris could be hazardous and should not be touched.

"It was an extremely clean-count process. We were well ahead of schedule most of the morning. The rocket lifted off, pitched over as it was supposed to, but continued to veer south. I would be surprised if we don't know what happened fairly quickly," said Kent Rominger, a vice president for rocket designer Alliant Techsystems Inc.

NASA and Alliant had worked together on the project for about three years. The two partners will create a joint team to investigate the cause of the debacle. Rominger said he would go so far as to call the event a ‘very big disappointment’, but definitely not a setback.

Of the two major experiments set to be initiated by the launcher, the HyBoLT (Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition) was to measure air flow and heat while traveling faster than the speed of sound. It was designed to push the technological boundaries of hypersonic flight.

The second experimental package, called SOAREX, was supposed to be deployed after HyBoLT dropped into the Atlantic Ocean. SOAREX contained three probes, the most important being SCRAMP, which automatically positions itself for re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Neither of these experiments had back-ups, said Juan Alonso, director of NASA's fundamental aeronautics program. "These are one-of-a-kind payloads. We knew the risks of launching payloads on a first-of-a-kind rocket, and we acknowledged those from the beginning of the development of these payloads," Alonso said.

The loss on Friday is the second setback the agency has suffered in the past month. On August 2, NASA lost another pair of experiments when a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket failed minutes into flight. Those experiments cost an estimated $2.3 million. That apart, the Falcon 1 was also carrying Trailblazer, a $3.5 million Pentagon-supported satellite.