In a matter of seconds, $200 million exploded high above the air.

NASA and Orbital's third of eight International Space Station cargo resupply missions, ended abruptly. The Antares rocket successfully went above the ground -- yet in a short period of time, the spacecraft became nothing but debris and a depressing memory.

NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate associate administrator William (Bill) Gerstenmaier expressed via ABC News, "This shows how difficult and maddening this business really is."

What went wrong?

Following the explosion at 6:22 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Orbital Sciences Corp. revealed in a tweet that there was a "vehicle anomaly."

According to Reuters, the Antares rocket launched from its pad at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was a 14-story vehicle that carried a Cygnus cargo ship, which was supposed to go to the Space Station.

Fortunately, the rocket was unmanned and nobody was injured during the explosion, according to reports.

Space Station program manager Mike Suffredini told Reuters that six astronauts in the station's orbit watched the launch through NASA's TV feed. "They were disappointed... Of course they are well aware that they have plenty of resources on orbit," he said.

California's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) was able to launch four cargo missions into the space station. The last one arrived on Saturday, wrote New York Times. Orbital's executive vice president Frank L. Culbertson Jr. said via the outlet that no further rockets will be launched unless the error has been identified and corrected.

He described what happened, "There was some disassembly of the first stage, it looked like, and then it fell to earth."

In a statement released by Orbital Sciences Corp., the company informed that the property damage was limited locally. Culbertson pointed that their company's primary concern would be the safety and security of all involved personnel.

The official went on, "We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident."

NASA expressed its disappointment in another statement; yet the space agency promised to keep moving once it has understood the mishap's nature.

Gerstenmaier has faith in Orbital, "Orbital has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first two missions to the station earlier this year, and we know they can replicate that success."

It was reported that the $1.9 billion contract between NASA and Orbital stated that the latter shall provide the vehicle; NASA will run the operations.

See NASA's list of partnership contracts here.

Watch the unfortunate launch of Antares (via Quantumofficial) below. NASA's press conference follow.