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    Barge Carrying Atlas Rockets Crashes Into Bridge

    By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
    Space.com     | SPACE.com – Fri, Jan 27, 2012

    A barge ferrying two Atlas 5 rockets to their Florida launch site crashed into a Kentucky bridge late Thursday (Jan. 26), but the rockets appear to be undamaged, officials say.

    The 312-foot (95-meter) cargo ship Delta Mariner smashed into a bridge over the Tennessee River in southwest Kentucky at 9:15 p.m. EST Thursday (0215 GMT Friday), causing a portion of the span to collapse. Though several cars were crossing the bridge at the time, the accident caused no injuries.

    The Delta Mariner was carrying two Atlas 5 rockets from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) factory in Decatur, Ala., to Cape Canaveral, Fla., said Sam Sacco, spokesman for Foss Marine, the company that owns and operates the boat.

    "There's no damage to the cargo," Sacco told SPACE.com. "Based on what we know right now, there's no real damage to the vessel itself, either."

    ULA officials confirmed that the launch vehicles appear to have survived intact. [The World's Tallest Rockets]

    "Initial inspections have shown that the flight hardware being transported was not damaged," officials said in a statement today. "The Coast Guard is conducting an investigation."

    Sacco said he wasn't sure when the two rockets are due to lift off from Cape Canaveral. In its statement, ULA referenced an "upcoming" launch, without providing specifics.

    According to the ULA's launch schedule, an Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Cape on Feb. 16, carrying a tactical satellite for the United States Navy. Another one is slated to lift off on April 27 with a new military communications satellite on board.

    The Delta Mariner, which was commissioned in 2002, transports flight hardware from ULA's Decatur factory to Cape Canaveral and another launch site, California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. It's capable of carrying up to three common booster cores, which are each as long as a 737 jet's fuselage.

    The ship can ply both rivers and the open ocean, and it can navigate waterways as shallow as 9 feet (3 m), according to ULA officials. The trip to Cape Canaveral covers about 2,100 miles (3,380 kilometers) and takes eight to 10 days.

    Sacco said the cause of the accident — which apparently did not result in any fuel spills or other obvious environmental problems — remains a mystery for now.

    "The company's been doing it for over 10 years. Exactly why this happened, I can't tell you," he said. "The Coast Guard will lead an investigation into the cause, and that will be the definitive explanation as to what happened."

    The Atlas 5 rocket is an expendable booster that first launched in 2002. Since then, it has logged about two dozen liftoffs, with 100 percent mission success, according to ULA officials. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover blasted off atop an Atlas 5 this past November.

    You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

     

    9 comments

    • jer
      jer  •  3 mths ago
      Hmmmm, funny that Atlas rocket boosters were being carried on a boat named "Delta," which is the name of our other rocket boosters! Are the Delta's carried on a boat named Atlas Marine? hahaha
      • Kirstin
        Kirstin 3 mths ago
        The Delta Mariner was first built to support Delta IV. However, the companies that make Delta and Atlas (Boeing and Lockheed respectively) were unable to make a go of it separately, and now they collaborate -- both vehicles are now operated by United Launch Alliance. As an additional cost-saving move, this made the Delta Mariner available to ship Atlas V common core boosters (which are close in size to the Delta's common booster core). There is indeed a great deal of irony in it -- even more if you know the contentious history of these two programs. There was a lot of bad blood to overcome.
    • Kirstin
      Kirstin  •  3 mths ago
      Clarification: it is not a barge but rather an ocean-going ship that operates under its own power. I wonder how long it will take to free it from the bridge span and repair it? The bridge repairs will probably take longer. I wonder what the alternatives are for ULA; I suppose they could hire one of NASA's ocean-going tugs and one of the barges that carried the External Tanks.
    • COFLZephyr
      COFLZephyr  •  Tampa, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      Used to ship these by rail. They should probably go back to plan A.
      • Kirstin
        Kirstin 3 mths ago
        Atlas, yeah. Delta IV always used the Delta Mariner, though, and there are Delta flights on the manifest this year. Including a Delta IV Heavy; that takes three common booster cores, which is basically a full load on Delta Mariner.
    • Otto Pilot
      Otto Pilot  •  Spring Branch, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Was that Italian cruise ship captain piloting the barge?
    • Moderator
      Moderator  •  Athens, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      Sooo, if the barge goes from Decatur AL to Cape Canaveral FL thru the Tombigbee waterway, #$%$ was it doing on Kentucky Lake? That was waaaay of course. Tombigbee is below Pickwick Dam, connects to the Mississippi.
    • Arlene
      Arlene  •  Fitzgerald, Georgia  •  3 mths ago
      There seems to be no concern about the damage to the bridge and the problems that will cause until it is repaired. How many people use this bridge each day and what will the cost be ?
      • Kirstin
        Kirstin 3 mths ago
        I'm not sure how many use it, but news reports I've seen suggest it's a major impact to people's commutes if they have to cross Lake Kentucky. They're talking fifty-minute detours. Yikes. Sounds like this is the only crossing over the reservoir, so folks have to go all the way around it otherwise.
    • Petercha
      Petercha  •  3 mths ago
      Good thing the rockets didn't get damaged. People could have been killed.
      • chris
        chris 3 mths ago
        They are not fueled when they transport them for reasons such as this. Think about it.
      • Kirstin
        Kirstin 3 mths ago
        Not just that, but a) they weigh more loaded, so it's better to transport empty, and b) the propellants are cryogenic -- they boil off so far there's no point loading more than a few hours before launch.
    • NW Bird
      NW Bird  •  Bigfork, Montana  •  3 mths ago
      Don't worry Joe, we're just hauling ATLAS 5 ROCKETS! And we only have TWO of them! What was the bridge clearance again, Fred? 13dot5 or 14dot5????
    • Heywood
      Heywood  •  3 mths ago
      HA-HA. The boat pilot was probably a deranged NASCAR fan. The boat had to be turned right, but he only knew how to do left turns!
     Post a comment
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