Cygnus CRS3 launch failure

[MartG]

Seems there's some finger pointing going on - Orbital blaming worn bearings in the engine, which in turn the engine supplier is blaming on debris

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/orbital-says-...

[Eric Mc]

I think the US industry is setting itself up to move away from imported Russian engines and is (at long last) developing new generation engines of its own.

[MartG]

Yes Eric - I think the political climate with Russia has certainly influenced their choice of engine for the new launcher. From ULA's perspective moving to the Vulcan will also reduce costs - currently they have two production lines for different launchers which overlap in performance and thus compete with each other ( Atlas and Delta ).

[MartG]

Pad reconstruction well underway today

[MartG]

Antares return to flight expected next month

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/or...