Space Station Resupply Rocket (unmanned) Explodes on Launch (October 28, 2014)

Total cargo: 2,215 kg (4,883 lb)[12]

Science investigations: 727.0 kg (1,602.8 lb)
U.S. science: 569.0 kg (1,254.4 lb)
International partner science: 158.0 kg (348.3 lb)
Crew supplies: 748 kg (1,649 lb)
Equipment: 124.0 kg (273.4 lb)
Food: 617.0 kg (1,360.3 lb)
Flight procedure books: 7.0 kg (15.4 lb)
Vehicle hardware: 637.0 kg (1,404.3 lb)
U.S. hardware: 607.0 kg (1,338.2 lb)
JAXA hardware: 30.0 kg (66.1 lb)
Spacewalk equipment: 66.0 kg (145.5 lb)
Computer resources: 37.0 kg (81.6 lb)
Command & data handling equipment: 34 kg (75 lb)
Photography/TV equipment: 3.0 kg (6.6 lb)
Total cargo with packaging: 2,294 kg (5,057 lb

was this one of those that were launched at Wallops Island?

Not that it matters as the space station is toast as the Russians fall in with the Chinese....

but still NASA is now so battered that we should consider closing it down.

We were pretty stupid to kill the shuttle before we had anything else. The humiliation continues.

NASA TV has a text screen up on the TV channel saying that there will be a press conference at 8:30 eastern time, about 15 minutes from now.

I'm not sure how much detail they'll have just two hours after the incident though. And I'll even be a little surprised if they start it on time. I've seen NASA press conferences start 5-10 minutes late before, even when they've had only good news to report.

Orbital Sciences Corp. has delayed the next scheduled launch of their Antares rocket on the company’s second NASA-contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station (ISS), pending the outcome of an investigation into why an Antares AJ26 engine scheduled to fly a future ISS flight next year failed during customary acceptance testing (also known as “hot-fire” testing) at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on May 22.

The next mission, designated Orb-2, is now scheduled to fly from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility MARS Pad-0A no earlier than June 17. That date is, however, only a planning date to give engineers more time to determine the cause of last week’s engine failure; a new firm date will not be established until more progress is made by the investigation team.

“On May 22 an acceptance test of an Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 rocket engine used in the Antares launch vehicle first stage terminated prematurely, resulting in extensive damage to the engine,” said Orbital Sciences in their brief comments on the incident. “The cause of the test failure in not known at this time. Over the next several days, engineering teams from Aerojet and Orbital will gather and examine the data collected from the test to determine the cause of the failure. This engine was slated for the Antares flight scheduled for early 2015.”

Antares has flown flawlessly on all three of its missions since 2013, but the liquid kerosene- and liquid oxygen-powered AJ26 engines Orbital Sciences uses to launch Antares skyward have failed in testing before, most recently in June 2011 when an engine caught fire on the Stennis E-1 Test Stand due to leaking kerosene in an engine manifold. The engines are actually modified Russian NK-33s, reconditioned by Aerojet Rocketdyne specifically for Antares.

A U.S.-built version of the AJ-26 engine is currently being developed in a strategic partnership between Aerojet and Teledyne Brown for NASA’s future Space Launch System (SLS).

It’s important to note that the engines themselves, built by Kuznetsov Design Bureau, are 40 years old, and they are no longer in production. Aerojet purchased 40 of the engines in the 1990’s and can supply enough to Orbital to support Orbital’s contractual obligation for ISS resupply flights for NASA, for now, but without a replacement engine the Antares may not survive to fly into the next decade.

but it looks like AErojet is already building a new version of theAJ26. This seems to get it to market sooner no?

The real problem is whether we still hve any living "Rocket scientists"

The explosion destroyed the rocket and spacecraft and immediately raised questions about the future of NASA's reliance on private commercial ventures to carry vital payloads into space to supply and support the orbiting space station.

As you can see, just seconds after launch there was something odd that happened in the first stage; there was a bright flare, then the bottom of the rocket exploded. As launch expert Jonathan McDowell notes, the first stage is built by the Ukranian company Yuzhnoe and uses Aerojet AJ-26 engines which are Russian NK-33 engines. These are very old engines (built in the 1960s and 70s) that are refurbished. While it’s not known if these were the cause of the explosion, I suspect they'll be very carefully scrutinized in the investigation. A recent test of one engine ended in failure.

Update, Oct. 28 at 22:30 UTC: Let me be clear: We don't know what caused this failure, and the engines are one of many possibilities. I am not pointing fingers, and I won't speculate beyond this. I changed the phrasing in the paragraph above to make this more clear.

The real problem is whether we still have any living "Rocket scientists"