Reporters run for cover as Antares rocket explodes

Managers have pushed back the next flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket from a launch pad in California until no sooner than early December, and the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for the U.S. Air Force has likely been delayed to some time early next year, officials said this week.

Ground crews transferred an Antares rocket out of an assembly building to a launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in a major step before liftoff on Orbital Sciences’ third flight to resupply the International Space Station.

United Launch Alliance workers encapsulated the freighter on Wednesday with the 14-foot-diameter, 45-foot-long extra extended payload fairing (XEPF) at Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.