ANNOUNCEMENT: Orion Aerospace Eagle 5 rocket lifts off, explodes over the Atlantic!

NOTICE:

DON’T UPVOTE, DON’T DOWNLOAD! THIS IS MEANT ONLY AS AN ANNOUNCEMENT FORUM! FOR THE ACTUAL EAGLE 5 LAUNCH VEHICLE, HEAD TO MY PROFILE. SERIOUSLY, THIS ISN’T THE ROCKET, ITS JUST MY LOGO, WHY DOES IT HAVE 300 DOWNLOADS?!!!!

Ya, that headline probably isn’t the best. Anyways, Eagle 5 CFT-1, our new rocket’s maiden flight, lifted off yesterday. For information on Eagle 5, go to my profile. The launch time was 2:53PM UTC, from Droo Space Center Launch Complex A. The prototype vehicles used were B305 and S1013, booster and second stage, respectively. Everything was nominal up to launch. At T-2:00, the Launch Director conducted a poll for launch vehicle readiness. At T-1:13, the Launch Director verified GO for launch. At T-1:00, Eagle 5 transitioned to internal power, and began startup. At T-0:10, the launch count began, with crowds cheering in the background. At T-0:03, all 7 Talon Engines ignited. At T-0:00, Eagle 5 CFT-1, took to the skies. The rocket ascended nominally, with no obvious anomalies. The rocket pitched over, as planned, and successfully passed through Max-Q and exceeded the speed of sound. Stage separation was successful, with a clean, quick jolt. The T-VAC engine on the second stage started up with no problems, a goal closely followed at Eagle Control. The booster immediately flipped and began the boostback burn with three Talons lit, as planned. The payload fairing separated nominally, and S1013 was on its way to space. The boostback burn shut down, and all 4 grid fins deployed on B305. Crowds cheered as it headed for a splashdown in the Atlantic. But, control was noted to be less than nominal during decent, and as the booster started up for the landing burn, telemetry was lost. A nearby camera buoy saw and heard the double sonic boom from the booster, followed by a massive explosion, and visible debris was observed raining down. B305 was announced to have had a RUD(Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly). Putting that aside though, S1013 was still preforming nominally, and was on its way to space. Cheers and shouts rang out as it was announced that S1013 had passed the Karmen Line and had reached space. Nearing SECO, or Second stage Engine Cut-Off, the chamber pressure in the T-VAC dropped abnormally, and telemetry was lost with S1013. Eagle Control struggled to re-contact S1013, and after several minutes, S1013 was announced to have exploded, and an abrupt end to Eagle 5 CFT-1 was given. 68 minutes later, an United States Air Force AWACS operating in the Pacific detected several hundred ballistic objects raining down from high altitudes.

CONCLUSION
We are still conducting a failure analysis on other vehicles, and the FAA has grounded the Eagle 5, although promising to let up once we have concluded and repaired the cause of failure. Despite the debris from both breakups, no civilian lives or property was harmed. Orion Aerospace will not let this failure stop us. CFT-1 was a test flight: nothing was guaranteed. We will press forward with all projects, and press even harder into the Eagle 5 Program to prevent another failure like this from happening and to get Eagle 5 CFT-2 off the ground as soon as possible. CFT-2, as of right now, will conduct the same flight profile for CFT-1, and will likely use prototype vehicles B306 and S1014. CFT-2 is expected to take flight at some point in the near future, or NET March. Stay tuned for updates, and wish us luck!