Antares

Okay, the Antares was apparently using rebuilt Russian motors from their humongous moon rocket that used to explode every time they tried to test it. I'll have to reconsider my comment of http://xolo.livejournal.com/413820.html .

I'm going to go out on a limb and make my guess, from the video, that the oxygen pump/precombustor either burned through or else seized up and shattered. That was always the weak spot on that design, and the rocket looked to me to be thrusting for at least a moment after the explosion, so I don't think the combustion chamber exploded.

Anyway, damn.


Edit: As of Nov 10th, "turbopump failure" is the suspected cause. http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/42502turbopump-in-aj-26-engine-implicated-in-antares-failure