Antares Orb-3 explosion (2014)
A cargo launcher exploded seconds after liftoff in October 2014, destroying the station resupply and damaging a public launch pad.
A failure at liftoff destroys more than the launcher and its payload: it hits ground facilities, often owned by a third party, public or private, and who pays for repairs is then settled by contract. The Antares explosion offers a quantified example, on a pad owned by a state space authority. It also illustrates the risk of a legacy engine: the first stage used refurbished Soviet engines, implicated in the investigation. For the insurance of the resupply cargo, the loss came on top of other failures in the same period, showing how fragile station resupply was. The operator then changed engines.
On October 28, 2014, Orbital Sciences' Antares carrying the Cygnus cargo craft on the Orb-3 mission to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops, Virginia. Repairs to the 120-million-dollar pad cost 15 million, split in three equal shares between NASA, Orbital and its owner, Virginia Space.
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