SpaceX the Alan Notes

The accident occurred about 2 1/2 minutes into the flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Pieces could be seen falling into the Atlantic Ocean. More than 5, 200 pounds (2, 360 kilograms) of space station cargo were on board, including the first docking port designed for future commercial crew capsules.

"The vehicle has broken up, " announced Nasa commentator George Diller. He said it was not clear how the disaster occurred or even when the rocket actually failed. Data stopped flowing from the rocket around 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the flight, he said. No astronauts were on board.

California-based SpaceX, a private company, was trying to figure out what happened, noting that everything appeared to go well in flight until the Falcon 9 rocket went supersonic.

It was a huge setback for Nasa, which is counting on private industry to transport cargo - and eventually astronauts - to the orbiting lab. The seven previous SpaceX supply runs had gone exceedingly well.

This is the second failed space station shipment in a row. In April, a Russian cargo ship spun out of control and burned up upon re-entry, along with all its precious contents. And last October, another company's supply ship was destroyed in a launch accident.