Manufacturer Antares rocket called the preliminary cause of the accident – RBC

Booster Antares with Cygnus space truck exploded at the start

Photos: Fotobank / Getty Images

The results of the commission’s work, organized to investigate the accident, indicate possible problems in one engine turbopump first stage, a company statement said Orbital. AJ-26 engines were developed in the Soviet Union for the implementation of the program of landing on the moon. They were called NC-33. Their production was discontinued after the collapse of the lunar program in 1974.

In the 1990s, the US company Aerojet bought several dozen NK-33, which it upgraded together with JSC “Kuznetsov” from Samara. Under the contract, Orbital was to get 20 of these engines. By the time of the accident was supplied for 10 units.

Press Service of JSC “Kuznetsov” previously stated that during the launch of the rocket engines Antares is operating normally. The company noted that an investigation into the accident did not involve its experts.

Vice President Orbital Frank Culbertson said earlier that the carrier rocket engines Antares have been tested and are OK. According to him, their preflight tests were conducted, including in Russia.

The source of the newspaper “Izvestia” Roskosmos said the day after the accident that the 2017 engines for Antares will provide NGOs “Energomash” from Khimki . According to him, the company won a tender announced by Orbital, and now the parties are discussing the format in which to announce the results of the competition.

Booster Antares exploded at the start from the Baikonur NASA Wallops Island, near the coast of Virginia on the night of October 29, 2014. On the outer truck Cygnus, destroyed in the accident, there were 2.3 tons of food and other supplies to the ISS.

In NASA noted that the space station crew enough resources before sending the next truck.