GreatScottLP

Everyone, press, social media, Orbital employees, NASA officials, were all very sad and downtrodden on the bus back. It was pretty traumatic both as an experience and as a realization of what this might mean for commercial spaceflight

It was one of the loudest things I've ever heard. The rocket going up under normal circumstances was loud enough, but the subsequent explosion was much louder. The shockwave was powerful too. It took many of us by surprise and that was probably the moment when it registered that we just witnessed something terrible. You know the entire time you're watching the event unfold, but being hit by the concussion of sound makes it all too real.

Some of the questions during the press conference made everyone roll their eyes. There were some groan-inducing questions asked by the press. A bit of a misunderstanding about the nature of the mission. I think it's upsetting that it takes a catastrophic failure to bring the press out about something like a rocket launch. This is literally the cutting edge of technology and human capability and the press really only showed up hours later for live shots of us coming back from the press site.

I am not a scientist or an expert, but I was in the presence of scientists and engineers. Now, please be aware that this is purely second hand speculation and that the facts at this time are completely unknown. The speculation is that it may have been related to the modified second stage and ATK motor onboard. It's possible there was a problem with the main engines. The main engines looked troubled even before the initial flash 6 seconds after launch to some of the engineers I talked to. Again, speculation based on video, we'll known for certain after the investigation.

I highly doubt the problem is related to the engines themselves. They're reliable engines and they wouldn't have been approved for use on NASA sponsored missions otherwise. People are looking for an easy scapegoat right now and pointing fingers and screaming "it's the damn Soviets!" seems satisfying. It's too early to tell what happened. My guess is that is probably had to do with a secondary system related to the engines but my opinion isn't worth much.

As for innovation, a lot of companies, including Orbital, are currently developing new rocket and vehicle technology.