UPDATE: Unmanned Antares Rocket Explodes At Wallops Island

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. - Orbital Science's Antares Rocket exploded just six seconds after liftoff on Tuesday evening.  After quickly realizing that something went wrong in the rocket's liftoff, a range safety officer sent a self-destruct command.

Officials are saying a big portion of the investigation will be evaluating the debris.

“You know we plan for the possibly of a failed launch attempt obviously we hope that does not happen but as has been mentioned that happens from time to time,” said NASA official. “If people do find debris or anything that might be suspect, that doesn't look familiar we ask you to stay away from the area and please call your incident response team.”

NASA officials are also asking anyone that finds debris or anything suspicious, to call the Incident Response Team at 757-824-1295.

The unmanned rocket, titled the Orb-3 Commercial Commercial Resupply Services mission, or “CRS Mission,” was supposed to carry the Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station located in low Earth orbit. Orbital Sciences Corp. says no one was believed to be hurt and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities. 

The rocket contained about 5,000 pounds of supplies and cargo, including experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. The gear was for the six people living on the international space station, and was the fourth Cygnus bound for the orbiting lab that flew just over a year ago.

The rocket was fully fueled and loaded late last week, scheduled to make it to the space station early Sunday morning.

NASA is paying the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and the California-based SpaceX company to keep the space station stocked in the post-shuttle era. This is reportedly the first disaster in that effort.