No, not the star. Not that I’ve heard, anyway…

Antares Rocket Explodes on Takeoff

The OSC Antares rocket failed seconds after liftoff. It looks like something catastrophic happened to one of the vintage Russian NK-33 rocket engines, causing the vehicle to lose thrust and fall back down from several hundred feet quite near the launch pad. From the looks of it… this’ll be a heck of a chore for the cleanup crew to get the pad back up and running. It wouldn’t surprising me if the launch area is totaled.

This is really quite a disaster. Fortunately the payload was minimally important… resupplies for the ISS and student payloads, but it’s a blow not only to the folks who worked on the vehicle, but also to the students.

[youtube vavKesbuFz0]