30 October 2014 - rocket explosion

What is it with all the news stories about the rocket that blew up at Wallops Island on Tuesday night? Don't wear out your keyboard. There are exactly two common failure modes for a space launch, at least while it’s near the ground. They are “uh, we saw something a little funny in the data so we aborted” which deserves no more than a headline, and KABOOM! which only needs pictures.