spacetoday.net: AJ26 engine malfunctions on test stand

Posted: Tue, May 27, 2014, 6:16 AM ET (1016 GMT)
An AJ26 rocket engine, used to power the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket, suffered a serious malfunction during a test late last week. The company confirmed there was an "engine test anomaly" with the engine during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi late Thursday. The engine was being tested before use on an Antares mission in 2015. It wasn't clear the cause of the failure, or how substantial the damage to the engine was. The AJ26 is an "Americanized" version of the Russian NK-33 engine provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Orbital did not indicate if the test incident would affect the next Antares launch, scheduled for the early morning hours of June 10.