SpaceX Falcon breaks up during ISS resupply launch

Shortly after launch today, SpaceX's Falcon launch vehicle that was carrying supplies to the International Space Station suffered a catastrophic failure. NASA's monitoring confirmed that the Falcon had broken up, something that was pretty obvious based on the live coverage of the launch. Prior to the failure just over two minutes into the flight, things had appeared to be going smoothly.

SpaceX control has announced that it is currently gathering data and evaluating video of the failure. It's hoping to host a press conference later today once that preliminary analysis is complete, but that will take place no earlier than 12:30 pm local time at Kennedy Space Center. Ars will have a reporter at the press conference, so check back later today.

UPDATE: The NASA administrator has released a statement about the loss of the supplies being sent to the ISS. In it, he notes that there will be Russian and Japanese resupply missions this summer, and Orbital Science plans on performing a resupply mission using an Atlas launch vehicle before the year is over. So, NASA expects the supply situation will not be critical, although several of the items on this flight were already replacements for items lost in other failed resupply missions.