NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility: One year later

Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of the Antares rocket explosion at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility.

The rocket was carrying about 5,000 pounds of cargo that was supposed to be delivered to the International Space Station, and it exploded just seconds after lift-off.

Sarah Daugherty, a test operator at NASA, met with 47 ABC on Wednesday in the same control center she sat in last year as she watched the Antares rocket from a tracking camera.

As a protocol, Daugherty explains a self-destruct button had to be hit, exploding the space-craft in mid-air.

“I wouldn’t say “panic” but it was just a few seconds of, you know, just that innate human reaction of like…wow this is really happening. Almost just like a split second of shock.” Explains Daugherty.

When that initial shock wore off, she says mission control jumped into action. Crews were reportedly instructed to initiate their mishap plan, notifying the hazmat team and fire department.

Now that the launch pad, owned by Mid-Atlantic Regional Space-Port (“MARS”) has been repaired, the job at Wallops is to complete performance tests and verify all repairs have been done successfully.

“So, we’re testing things like that fueling system, the liquid oxygen system just to be sure that all the commodities out there required to fuel the rocket are working properly.” Says Daugherty.

NASA’s role is to continue examining the explosion site from a bird-eye’s view, fine-tuning their emergency plans and applying it to future missions.

As for the rocket itself, Orbital Sciences has completed its own investigation.

According to Sean Wilson, a representative from Orbital Sciences, a report hs been provided to the FAA. Wilson says the most likely cause was a manufacturing defect in the turbo-pump of a main engine.

NASA says the cost around 15 million dollars to repair. That cost was reportedly split evenly between Orbital, NASA, and MARS.