It was late afternoon in the USA when the Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off on an Antares rocket but a few seconds later an explosion caused their destruction. The disaster occurred at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of the Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) NASA’s Wallops Island, Virginia. There are no injuries but damage to the launch pad was reported.

This was supposed to be the third official mission, called Orbital-3, Orbital CRS-3 (Commercial Resupply Service 3) or just Orb-3, of supply transport to the International Space Station for NASA. The security measures were started immediately after the explosion to begin the collection of the debris scattered in the area.