them. her name ist tia marie value zalea. we're told she may be driving a green or gray-colored 2009 honda crv. the tags, maryland tags, that read 4aw 5518. if you've seen one, you've seen a thousand, and you probably stopped even noticing them years ago. >> we're talking about highway guard rails. those metal barriers that are supposed to help you survive a mishap. but as the old cap calloway song suggests, it ain't necessarily so. in many rails, there is a design flaw that could kill you. and transportation officials in virginia have decided to do something about that. adam tuss is on the road in fairfax county now with more. adam? >> reporter: jim, this has become such an issue that v-dot is now putting a plan together to identify potentially defective guard rails, and remove them. take a look here. this is route 50 in fairfax. these are the kind of guardrail heads we are talking about.

but quite literally, they could be anywhere. a guardrail that could do more harm than good. what does that make you think of when you're out driving around? >> i don't want to hit a guardrail. >> reporter: you sigh, when you hit a guardrail, the head of the rail is supposed to absorb the impact and push all the metal behind it away from the vehicle. but transportation leaders say a company that manufactures rail heads, as they're known, made a cost-cutting design change in 2005 without telling federal officials. and that design change could turn rail heads into weapons. in essence, the metal could act like a spear, piercing through cars. more than a dozen states now ban new purchases of this product from texas-based trinity industries. the rail heads are in use in maryland and virginia. and virginia is now the first state to say it will remove the guard rails. drivers agree. >> i think it's time to replace them. >> reporter: trinity industries has told federal and state

officials, it will cooperate with new crash tests, but the company already missed a deadline set up by v-dot, and v-dot says trinity may have to pay the cost to replace the rail heads. here's the real problem. most of these rail heads, as they're called, were put in by contractors around the state. v-dot doesn't have the records to show where the improper rail heads are. so now they have to go out and visually inspect each and every one. v-dot sent us this statement, saying since 2006, v-dot has paid for and installed over 11,000 guardrail end treatment throughout the commonwealth in virginia on construction contracts. v-dot does not have an inventory on the specific brands used throughout the state. v-dot tells us tonight if these new safety it tests on guardrails are successful, the guard rails can stay. but those tests have not even been scheduled yet. reporting live, in fairfax, adam tuss, news4. just about 30 minutes from

now, prince george's county police will start canvassing a neighborhood in chillum. they're looking for clues in a murder from last night. hollis johnson died at the hospital after being shot outside his apartment complex on chillum road. there is a $25,000 reward in the case. for the first time tonight, we're hearing from the lawyer who just filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the d.c. school. options charter school is named as a defendant as is a substitute teacher who allegedly had sex with a student inside the school. that whole thing was caught on cell phone video. shomari stone is now with the latest on this. >> reporter: jim, the family of this student is suing for $3 million. a lawyer representing the 17-year-old student filed the lawsuit today, alleging the school and the employment firm that hired 22-year-old simone green failed to conduct a proper background check before placing her in a classroom as a substitute teacher. the lawsuit claims she instigated the flirting that led to her performing oral sex on

the boy in her classroom. it was her first day on the job. according to the lawsuit, a second teacher allegedly saw green and the student flirting but did not report it. we're going to hear more from the attorney who filed the lawsuit. >> even if that young man came into that classroom wearing nothing but boxers, and came on even stronger than what's been alleged in the complaint, that teacher had a duty to step in and stop that behavior, notify the appropriate authorities and hold fast to the standard which we, as members of the society, expect our teachers to live up to. >> reporter: now, green pleaded not guilty to sex abuse. she is scheduled to be in court next month. meanwhile, the employment company that hired her did not get back to us. but the school released a statement basically stating that the substitute teacher was not an employee here at the school, and will continue to follow the story and bring updates as they become available. live in northwest d.c., shomari stone, news4.

keeping ebola out of the u.s. by stopping it at its source. just a few hours ago, president obama held a news conference. he says progress is being made on the ground in west africa. thanks to the u.s.-led response. he says the team is increased the number of treatment units, helped get more medical personnel and equipment, and launched an aggressive education campaign. the president says it's critical to maintain that leadership. >> we're going to have to stay vigilant, and we've got to make sure we're working together. we have to keep leading the global response. america cannot look like it is shying away, because other people are watching what we do. the president also spoke to amber vinson by phone today. the texas nurse was released from emory university hospital in atlanta this afternoon after being declared ebola-free. >> while this is a day for celebration and gratitude, i ask we not lose focus on the thousands of families who continue to labor under the burden of this disease in west africa.

thank you to dr. kent brantly and nancy writebol, both of whom were successfully treated here at emory, for your donations of plasma for me and other patients. >> you may remember, vinson flew on a commercial flight from dallas to cleveland before she was diagnosed. coming up at 6:15, nbc's jay gray looks at some of the controversial new rules being put into place for those potentially at risk. a woman that was a young bride but is now a widow is speaking out tonight. she is hoping that whoever it was that killed her husband will fess up. somebody found the victim along a dirt road in a rural part of prince george's county yesterday. pat collins is at police headquarters with the latest. pat? >> reporter: jim, she's 25 years old. she was married last month. she's a widow today. she has some questions about her husband's murder. and she wants some answers. jill and devine wood were married last september 26th.

now just a month later, this young bride is a widow. >> they took the only thing that i had, that was on my side. i will never be the same again. i will never love anybody the way i loved him. >> reporter: monday evening, the body of devine wood found nearby a dirt road in the rural section of brandywine, maryland. he had come here in a ford focus car. that car was found in the brush off the road. police worked this scene through the night. they say devine had been shot. but was it here or someplace else? there are many questions left to be answered. >> we're continuing to investigate every possibility. it's possible he's murdered there where we find him. it's also possible he's shot and killed somewhere else and then the suspect or suspects bring him to the location where we found him. >> reporter: jill says whoever killed her husband knew him. you think this is not a random

thing. you think whoever did this to him knew him. >> i know they did. and they need to come clean. they need to confess. they need to do something. >> reporter: jill says she and her husband both had troubled pasts, but together were working to straighten out their lives. now this. >> we all have trouble in our lives. and nobody deserves to die. nobody deserves to, you know, get shot like that. of. >> reporter: remember the ford focus car found at the scene? evidence from that car could lead police to the killer in this case. live in prince george's county, pat collins, news4. family and friends from both sides testified today in the case of a virginia marine who confessed to murder. caleb crew shocked everyone in court yesterday when he pleaded guilty to killing his wife, andrea. crew told miss he strangled her and then dumped her body in the okay would kwan river.

there is a hotly contested congressional race in which frank wolf is retiring after 33 years in congress. republican barb rah come stock and john foust are battling to replace him. they also had to fight back against negative ads. >> i don't think she even had a real job. >> have you seen the news about ba barbara comstock. >> reporter: chances are you have seen them. the two mostegative ads between john foust and barbara comstock. this ad had foust defending himself for weeks. it spot lights an interview in which foust said in, part, i don't think she's ever had a real job. come stock and republicans jumped on it as sexist. >> i think it was a total lack of understanding of who works on what kind of jobs here in this community. as well as his intending to be.

>> reporter: foust says the quote was taken out of context, part of a broader statement, criticizing comestock for work as a partisan brought active in washington. >> it was a poor choice of words and i do regret saying it, because it has allowed her to do what she does, and that is to distract voters from her record. >> reporter: more recently, comestock has been forced to confront controversy. it was reported she served as a paid spokesperson for an anti union group, while as a delegate sponsored legislation of groups who support it. >> how can you secretly introduce legislation in richmond when you're supposed there to represent your constituents. >> reporter: she says there were no secrets and the bill she ushered through saved taxpayers money. >> it has now saved virginia hundreds of millions of dollars. saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars is not a conflict. >> just a week now until election day and that means just seven more days to endure the final onslaught of the negative

campaign ads. before you head to the polls, you can learn more about all of the candidates on nbcwashington.com. just check out the first read section on our home page. turning now to our weather and what a gorgeous day it's been. and the drastic temperature swings that are coming. let's go to doug in storm center 4 to tell us just what to expect over the next 24 hours. doug? >> next 24 hours, we're going to see a little bit of a shift here. temperatures today in the mid to upper 70s and even the lower 80s in some locations. take a look at these numbers. 84 in winchester. 84 in leesburg. 85 towards fredericksburg. 78, the unofficial high so far in the d.c. metro area. but yeah, very warm day. tomorrow about 10 to 15 degrees colder. that's from this frontal boundary right here. you see the front back to the west, from buffalo right through the cleveland-cincinnati area. that front moves through and brings a chance of a shower tomorrow. but the next front, that's a big-time frontal boundary that will knock temperatures down nearly 40 degrees from where

they were today. we'll talk about that coming up in a minute. thanks, doug. new at 6:00, our investigation by news4 that has sparked changes. we'll tell what's being done to keep squatters from taking over foreclosed homes. they stop traffic to make their voices heard. tonight the new rules in place what what they mean for anybody using a cab. a somber trip for a soldier who was killed in a terror

(david) you've got to be a little off to be a catcher. i got hit with a couple foul balls and didn't really think anything of it. i felt a little foggy. i couldn't eat. the anger came really quick. when i'd go to swing, the ball would disappear. my wife said if you don't tell the doctors i'm going to. they sent me to upmc. they said you got a pretty good concussion. they gave me a plan, like a rehab for your brain. just to come from that to catch the last out of the series. i didn't choose to get those concussions, but i did choose upmc. (vo) learn more at rethinkconcussions.com

dallas nurse amber vinson is cured of ebola now. u.s. hospitals have successfully treated seven americans for the potentially deadly virus now. but still there is growing disagreement about how best to protect the public. jay gray is outside bellevue hospital in new york with that story. jay? >> reporter: hey, doreen. yeah, with amber vinson out of the hospital, as you said, there is only one u.s. patient being treated for ebola right now. it's dr. craig spencer. he's in serious but stable condition here at bellevue. while the plan to take care of those who may be future at-risk patients, not stable at all. after less than two weeks of treatment, nurse amber vinson walked out of the isolation unit at emory university hospital and back into the national spotlight. >> as a nurse and now as someone who has experienced what it's like to be cared for through a

life-threatening illness, i am so appreciative and grateful for your exceptional skill, warmth and care. >> reporter: it was vinson's trip on a commercial jet and a current ebola patient, dr. craig spencer out in new york before both tested positive for the deadly virus that sparked the national debate now over how to handle those potentially at risk. >> we don't want to discourage our health care workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way. >> reporter: the centers for disease control has announced four new risk levels for travelers returning from west africa. none include a recommendation for mandatory isolation. >> i understand that the cdc is behind on this. >> reporter: unapologetic, new jersey governor chris christie continues to defend his 21-day mandatory quarantine order, and points out six states have adopted similar policies. >> this is common sense, and the members of the american public believe it is common sense. and we're not moving an inch. our policy hasn't changed and

our policy will not change. >> reporter: despite continuing criticism and questions of whether it's legal or necessary. look, while they haven't called for a mandatory quarantine this evening, there is a list of states now requiring anyone returning to self report and to health care officials twice daily. jay gray, news 4. >> thanks, jay. temperatures, can you believe it, up there around 80 degrees today. but in somewhat of a contradiction, the d.c. council was thinking about snow. they're trying to come up with a plan to make sure kids don't miss a meal when they miss a day at school. 50,000 students in the d.c. public school system receive free or reduced price meals. but when school is cancelled, some of those kids don't eat. today the council members adopted a bill that requires school officials to develop a plan by next summer on how to

provide meals on bad weather days. i'm glad the council and schools are thinking ahead but i sure wasn't thinking about weather today. it was beautiful. >> yeah, i tell you, it really was quite nice out there. temperatures not only around 80, but even 85 in some of the areas. >> does this count as indian summer? >> no, i think you need a longer stretch of that. >> one day -- >> one day does not do that, doreen. and you're not going to get two. >> all right. >> winter, that's around the corner too. at least a winter-like temperature. right now look at that shot, the sun making its way down. sunset tonight just about six minutes ago. sun continues to go down. you notice a few clouds. 74 degrees under partly to mostly clear skies. winds south at 10 miles per hour. southerly wind helping us to get into the 70s and even the 80s. 79 in leesburg. 81 towards fredericksburg. so a very warm afternoon today. but as i mentioned, not going to stay that way. the radar all clear now. all you have to do is widen out a bit. how about a little more. all right. back towards ohio, we're seeing

rain and that rain coming courtesy of a cold front. you also see cloud cover ahead of that. not a whole lot of rain, but what we're really going to see is temperatures that will cool on the back side of that. so for 74 in d.c., 78 in richmond. 79 in columbus, so that will move in after the first frontal boundary. so after that front moves through, highs tomorrow into the 60s. 68 in d.c. 69 forwards fredericksburg. 63 towards on martinsburg. cooler through thursday. we will see showers tomorrow. so take the umbrella. the impact forecast for your wednesday, though, still on the low side as a result of a few light showers. on the mild side too, as temperatures stay above average. but over the next couple days, temperatures going below average. on thursday, with a high of 60. still pretty nice with some sunshine out there. friday looking good for the trick or treaters. temperatures around 60 degrees. but then another front moves through late friday night into early on saturday. and that is really going to have an impact on our weekend. 52 degrees for a high temperature on saturday.

buttit not going to feel like 50. we'll see a 40% chance of shower activity too, but much colder. wind chills saturday close to 40 degrees. and i think some could be in the 30s, especially for you folks back to the west. we'll see winds upwards of 20, 25 miles per hour. daylight saving time comes to an end saturday night into sunday. so remember to set those clocks back. and even though on sunday we'll see a high near 50, but we're still going to see those winds. so still going to be rather chilly as we make our way through the weekend. we do warm back up a little bit. 59 degrees on monday. 63 degrees on tuesday. this could end up being a pretty big storm toward the northeast. for us, though, only seeing scattered shower activity. get out the coats. i think we're going to need them as we make our way in towards this weekend. >> thanks, doug. any minute now, a rocket is expected to lift off from wallops island in virginia. this will be about 24 hours after it was scheduled for launch yesterday. they're carrying supplies up to the international space station and we'll bring an update from our live desk in just a moment.

tearing down the old to usher in a new era. tonight, mixed reaction from residents as work begins to rid this community of crime. calls for change in maryland's fastest-growing school district. we'll report when students could get out of portables and back get out of portables and back into a he's been called a super lobbyist, the ultimate washington insider. ed gillespie paid millions to lobby for the oil companies for a student loan company that overcharged taxpayers. his firm even lobbied for five foreign governments including a dictator now awaiting trial for war crimes. and then there's enron. gillespie lobbied for them while

they committed the largest corporate fraud in us history. ed gillespie. the million dollar lobbyist whose never looked out for you.

an awful situation in

wallops island for that launch to the space station. jim handly at the live desk. >> this did not go as planned. horribly awry jim vance. literally just seconds ago. the rocket, an unmanned rocket, went up, then exploded. it barely went up just seconds after you saw the first plumes of smoke below. then you saw that explosion. this is all happening at wallops isla island. around this time yesterday, the launch was originally supposed to happen, but a boat that was down range of the hazard zone made engineers call off the launch at the last moment. this rocket was supposed to bring supplies to the international space station. again, those pictures just moments ago, 6:22. the mission did not get off the ground. it barely came up, and then you saw that rocket explode. we will bring you updates as they come in. jim and doreen, back to you. >> all right, jim. thank you very much. we have video now of the incident as it occurred.

that rocked scheduled to launch just a couple minutes ago. but apparently something went very wrong. often in situations like that when something is wrong, they intentionally blow it up. there it goes. >> and we have liftoff. >> again, this is an unmanned rocket. >> third mission for the iss. that main engine is at 108%. >> there was only five or six seconds after it lifted off from the launch pad. that rocket exploded. that launch was scheduled for yesterday afternoon. it's interesting, they cancelled it, because there was a boat in what they call -- i can't think of the name of it now, but in an area where if there is a problem, debris would call in that area of the ocean. this time, it never made it to the ocean. that launch blew up about five seconds after it lifted off from the launch pad down at wallops island. we'll have more on this story as

more details become available. especially in terms of exactly what it was, if we can determine that, what it was that caused that rocket to explode. now we go to -- back to doug and the weather center. >> yeah, guys. just watching this, we were -- everybody excited, obviously, for this to go on again. and in this at 6:22. we were watching this really for the last couple of days, this going up. this was going to be one of those ones -- this is the first night launch down at the wallops island facility. wallops island took over from cape canaveral for a lot of launches recently, and as a result of such, this was one of those that did go off. only about five seconds in, it obviously lost thrust and a lot of times what happens here, complete speculation, but a lot of times what happens here is one of the -- something in the fuel line goes ahead and bursts. something like that. i've got to tell you, i knew -- i was thinking about what was happening here earlier as i watched this. just the tragic event here.

fortunately there's nobody around that area. so we should not have any kind of problems as far as that is concerned. but guys, this is going to be something we cover for the rest of the night tonight. and, of course, we'll have the latest as we move through the 6:00 news, through 11:00. >> doug, i think let's emphasize that was an unmanned rocket. it was carrying supplies on its way to the international space station. i believe that was also not a nasa launch, but rather that was a private contractor launching the -- those supplies. again, that from wallops island, virginia, and it's a launch that was supposed to happen yesterday at this time. postponed until today. and clearly unsuccessful launch. but so far we have no official explanation for what exactly went wrong over there. >> and certainly a lot of people will be very curious about that. this, of course, is not the first launch out of wallops island. there have been other successful launches on missions to the space station and elsewhere, if i'm not mistaken. this, though, as doug mentioned, was the first nighttime launch.

the one yesterday i think was scheduled for just a little bit of time before this one. that one cancelled for reasons having to do with a boat that was in the area, where if something went wrong, the debris would fall into that field. this time it never made it out into the ocean. hardly six seconds off the launch pad, and that rocket blew up. we have no idea, of course, at this point why that happened or what they will do next about that. this is a -- as doreen noted, a private company. this is not nasa. not a nasa mission. but it is tragic accident. and as we noted, it was scheduled to take supplies up to the space station, and no word yet on now what will they do without the supplies that were supposed to come up on that one. >> again, that unsuccessful launch taking place just moments

ago. that's a live picture of the aftermath. we will be on top of this story and as soon as we get more information, we will share it with you. in the meantime, we will take a quick break. we'll be back right after this.

we continue to cover this unsuccessful rocket launch that just happened moments ago at wallops island, virginia.

back to jim handly it at the live desk with new information. jim? >> doreen and vance, this was about nine minutes ago, on schedule, as it didn't happen yesterday. 6:22 nod. take a look. just within seconds of this, right here, you see the rocket go up. barely going up. and then all of a sudden an explosion. the rocket goes down and then significant fire. what we're hearing now from nasa. there is significant property and vehicle damage on wallops island here. you should know, they have literally launched scores of -- thousands of launches since 1945 on this 6,000-acre island there, which is across the bridge from virginia beach. we are not hearing about any fatalities or injuries. this is an unmanned rocket. we want to reiterate, the antaris rocket yesterday aborted because of a boat in the water nearby. it went off at 6:22, but went

horribly wrong. an unsuccessful launch there. we don't know what happened, but again this is an unmanned rocket right now. sirens are now audible in some of the pictures we're pulling in now from the nasa feed. they are going through procedures right now. safety procedures around this area. we hear that as many as 1,100 people working for nasa and contract workers work on this island. again, it's just 6,000 acres on virginia's eastern shore. it's nasa's only owned and operated launch range. again, we can't emphasize enough, this is an unmanned rocket bringing up supplies and food to the international space station. again, one of scores -- literally thousands of launches since it was established, this area back in 1945. and it's known as the antaris rocket. it is no more, as we saw of about 11 minutes ago now, discriminate and doreen. >> jim, we remember last night at this time we were talking about this rocket launch just

about to happen. it was postponed. and then cancelled, because there was a boat out there in the -- sort of in the flight path of this rocket. this is a pretty clear demonstration of why they need that flight path for the rocket cleared down on the ground. because of the possibility that something like this could happen. >> that's an excellent point, doreen. you're exactly right. and this as you mentioned before, the first nighttime launch we have seen from wallops island. so it looked spectacular from the very beginning. because it just lit up with darkness all around it. but then you knew instantly that something was wrong. it did not take long, because it barely got off. and let's take a look one more time.

so literally probably 20, 25 seconds before we saw that huge explosion. we don't know how wide of a debris field we're talking about, but there is, again, significant vehicle damage. also significant other property damage too. as we understand it, no one really lives on wallops island, but there are some 1,100 employees. some working for nasa, some working on a contract basis there. we don't know of any injuries at this point. but again, we're hearing sirens now audible from the nasa feed we're getting here in the newsroom. >> once again, people just tuning in, we want to it emphasize that as an unmanned rocket. there were no astronauts on that rocket that took off from wallops island and exploded. i think we're going to go to doug in the weather center now. doug, is it possible that weather conditions could have been a factor at all in any of this? >> no, definitely not a weather scenario here that has played

out here. we have been watching the weather the last couple days, watched for yesterday's launch. weather was fine for yesterday's launch, but there was a boat we talked about in the atlantic in that flight path. today weather was at 100%. it was an optimal path and that's what nasa put out earlier, saying weather was at 100%. they had it at 97% as of 5:00. 100% at launch time. wallops island is just south of chin chinkatink. it was not able to go off yesterday because of a boat, but on that path it could be over open waters and would have been over the first 20 seconds here. we didn't make it that far. and that's why we saw that come right back down to land and there is going to be a lot of structural damage to that launch pad. this is actually an orbital science corporation rocket. the antares rocket went off in april of 2013, their first launch. this the first night launch. that's not going to have

anything to do with this either. i fully suspect that if this happened tonight, it may as well have happened last night too. so there is really no difference from what happened last night to what happened tonight. so unfortunately, an unsuccessful rocket launch for sure. the space station was going to be getting those supplies over the next couple days. as this satellite made its way into orbit and then orbited around and docked with the space station. >> let's go back to jim handly. >> to emphasize again, vance, what doug was mentioning. because this was at nighttime, millions of people literally up and down the eastern seaboard were lang planning to look up to see this launch. that's how bright it was going to be, and because of the darkness visible to millions up and down the eastern seaboard. people from massachusetts to south carolina were planning to watch the antares rocket soar across the evening sky tonight. again, the launch was 6:22 but barely made it up before the explosion. the spacecraft was due to arrive

at the international space station on november 2. so about four or five days away. it was carrying, again, as we mentioned earlier, food and supplies to astronauts up there. on the ground, all we know now, there is significant property and vehicle damage. we haven't gotten any word of injuries so far. but dramatic pictures, certainly, coming in at 6:22. wallops island, again, six square miles off the eastern shore. part of the barrier islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the u.s. and as doug mentioned, south of the popular tourist destination. you can see live pictures now, a lot of color, a lost flames and smoke still coming up from the ground there. >> okay, jim, thank you. we are continuing to make calls and find new information about what happened down there, just a few minutes ago. we'll be right back. stay tuned.

an unsuccessful launch at wallops island in virginia tonight. a ship that was supposed to carry supplies to the space station. jim handly is at our live desk now. jim, we have new information. >> reporter: yeah, vance, we're hearing what was said seconds after the first sign there was something wrong. that explosion. and all we can make out really is we have lost power. then down about 10, 20 seconds after that, we have had a failure of some sort, and then they shifted into their contingency plan. what that means, we don't know. these are live pictures again. and you can see flames off in the distance. still smoke. what was a very dark sky is still lit up, just from the ground up. you can see. and they have got a lot of lights on the ground, because as we mentioned earlier, there is significant damage to property on the ground, significant damage to vehicles. we have rescue crews on the scene right now, because we've heard several alarms going off, and sirens going off from the nasa feed we're getting in right now. we don't have any word on any

injuries. again, as we have mentioned time and time again, this was an unmanned rocket. the "antares" rocket. 6:22, they counted down. it barely went up and then you saw a huge, tremendous explosion. flames and smoke filling the night sky there at wallops island. again, wallops island, six square miles. there are more than 1,100 employees there, nasa employees. some privately contracted employees, too. let's take a look one more time here. >> on its third mission, the iss. that main engine at 108%. >> and that, again, was at 6:22,

a little bit after that. we're about 40 or 50 seconds into that launch. >> everyone in the lcc maintain your positions. >> you can hear the instructions given to maintain positions. they're shifting into their contingency plans right now. something interesting. one of our producers, john wiz, just got off the phone with his parents who live in ocean city. they told him their whole house and neighborhood shook at this moment we're seeing right here now. so they could feel it that far away. we've mentioned they are carrying up food and supplies to the international space station. now we've gotten word it was some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the international space station. again, no people on board. we haven't gotten any word. again, we're trying to determine if anybody was injured on the ground. but as you can see, this is still a very active scene in terms of flames and smoke there, jim and doreen. >> jim, didn't you say earlier that -- i think as we knew, this was not the first launch attempt at wallops island. in fact, there have been more

than a few successful launches, correct? >> oh, yes. they have had scores of launches, vance. 16,000, we're hearing. this was established back in 1945. they have had 20 to 30 rocket launches a year. this, again, as you mentioned earlier, the first nighttime launch. but they have also had 15 to 20 balloon laumpnches. two research areas across the bridge from virginia beach. they are no stranger to an active launch site there. this is the first i can recall ever doing a story on something that happened -- had gone so awry, and had a failure of this magnitude. >> it does make you wonder if that rocket was carrying supplies on the way to the international space station. it makes you wonder what the contingency plan was for that to get more supplies and get another launch under way, even as they investigate what went wrong with this one.

>> and you know, from the pictures we're seeing, you can just imagine how much fuel is aboard this thing to have that type of eruption. we've got some audio, jim and doreen. let's listen. >> the spacecraft does have classified crypto equipment on the spacecraft. so we do need to maintain the area around the debris in it a secure manner. that needs to be done for multiple reasons. obviously, accident investigation, as well as the fact there is potential security equipment involved. >> copy that, mike. that's correct. >> the launch vehicle is in the process of securing our log files, terminating the collection of data, and securing all the telemetry files from the

vehicle today. i would ask that the mars personnel, if there is any files on their computers, on their servers for the operation of the ground equipment to also secure those pieces of equipment and -- >> all right. there you have it there. that was about 10, 15 minutes ago now, shortly after 6:22. we are monitoring the nasa feed here on our live desk, and we're getting word from nasa right now that they have accounted for everyone. no injuries at this time. that everyone has been accounted for. you heard him talk about the enormous debris field there. and you also heard him mention cignus, the private firm. we talked about supplies going to the international space station. tomorrow a russian spacecraft called "the progress" is supposed to blast off tomorrow and nasa says that launch should

not be impacted by today's incident. that is also a spacecraft used to take supplies and fuel to the space station. again, we gave you a figure a short time ago, some 5,000 pounds of supply and experiments was going up on this to the international space station due to arrive there, i believe, november 2. so about four or five days out on this. >> jim, to provide some perspective here and correct me if i'm wrong, going off the top of my head, but i seem to recall they got even busier down there at wallops island after nasa not that many years ago decided to retire the space shuttle, which at one point, if i'm not mistaken, was the principle vehicle to resupply the space station. and the personnel who were on that station. and private -- enterprises then -- or private entities then took over that function of sending up rockets to dock with the space station, and resupply

that ship. >> reporter: i think you're exactly right. and an important you make, vance. they have got 800 private contractors working out of this area there. at wallops island. so a lot of it has shifted into private hands right now. and we mentioned cignus providing resources and they're responsible for this thing. this mission that went horribly wrong here. just look at the pictures. the split screen. we've got a live on one side, and then just about 25 minutes ago, we have the explosion there. let's listen in. we've got some more audio coming in. >> suffering an accident shortly after liftoff. declaring a mishap. currently working to secure the area, and all of the data from their consoles as they collected from the telemetry to use in coming investigations. the launch director confirming

no personnel unaccounted for. so no injuries. the team continuing to secure both the vehicle site and their data. we will continue to bring you updates here on the air and on our website at nasa.gov/orbital as they become available. >> no personnel involved? >> ldofi. right now we've -- the faa is assessing whether the ntsb will be involved. so until we know that they will not be involved, we just need to make sure we don't interview -- nobody interviews personnel. because the ntsb will have the first right for interview. >> okay, copy that. so everyone needs to be aware that we do have regulatory concerns that we need to address. >> so again, confirmation that we've just heard. again, no casualties, no injuries. no one hurt or killed. nobody on board that rocket that

just exploded about 25 minutes ago at wallops island off the virginia coast. but you look at these pictures, and you have to think about how heartbreaking this is for the hundreds of people on wallops island who have been preparing for this launch for months, and working to make this go off smoothly today. and you can just hear it in their voices, how discouraging this is. >> hundreds on wallops island and elsewhere, as well. we saw the explosion from a ground camera. doug kammerer now i think has some images, doug, from high above, huh? >> yeah, jim. i'll tell you, any time we see a fire or an explosion like this, you look at the radar and you see what's going on with the radar. this is the radar out of dover, and you can see what's happening here. this is actually not a thunderstorm, this is the smoke from the explosion. now, wallops island is right here. this is wallops. and you can see just how close it is to chinkatink. while there may not be damage to the area there around wallops

island to the personnel, we are going to see damage to the structure that the rocket did take off from. but wouldn't be surprised to see some damage, maybe windows blown out around the chinkatink area, but here this is the smoke being picked up by the radar. you can see where the explosion was. and with the wind, that smoke just making its way straight up the islands now, right towards the ocean. so it would not be surprised -- this would continue to rise into the atmosphere and continue to go out so people over towards ocean city will be able to see this. people over towards dover or rather rehoboth beach will be able to see this smoke as it's continuing off into the atlantic ocean. this rocket was supposed to take off at 6:22, making its way out into the open waters of the atlantic. scrubbed last night due to a boater in the debris field and that's why this is called the debris field, just in case this rocket is to explode. most likely what happened over the open waters of the atlantic ocean not posing a threat to land. this only six seconds in, not

able to get over to the open water so they are going to have significant damage to some of the structures in that region. but fortunately around the wallops island area, should not see too much from that. would not be surprised, though, to see some things around the chinkatimpg area. something we'll be watching for. also the latest on news4 at 11:00, but still watching as the explosion -- the smoke from the explosion moves slowly off to the north and east. >> it is fascinating, doug, to witness how much we can see now with the technology that is available to us. >> so many angles. >> from so many angles. and certainly fascinating also how all of this technology and more will be used in the investigation of what happened there. >> we go back to jim handly now. you have some new information, jim? >> yeah, guys. just to put it in perspective. we talked to our content producer, john wiz, who just got off the phone with his parents who live in ocean city. that is about an hour away by car, 45 miles away from wallops island here where you're seeing this. that whole neighborhood, their whole house was shaking right

when this was happening to the right on your screen ere. we've been listening to the nasa feed coming in. we heard about an issue for regulatory control, who is going to take charge of this investigation. will it be the ntsb. no one is to be interviewed at this point. they're concerned about damage, and the debris field. but again, no injuries. back to you. >> all right. thank you, jim. we will stay on top of this and we will share with you as any new information becomes available. available. we'll be

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this is the xfinity sports desk, brought to you by xfinity, your home for the most live sports. lighter attitudes brighter in this town today. jason is here to tell us why. >> great game last night. redskins due for a win in prime time. the seven-game losing streak is over and done with after last night's victory. how were the skins able to pull off this massive upset? chris cooley explains in this week's edition of the cooley report. >> yeah, how about the performance from colt mccoy tonight. 25 of 30, accurate all night. made smart decisions, ran the ball. quarterback draw. it was not too big for him tonight, and you love that. he operated this offense at a level that helped this team win. four drives of over nine or eight plays.

that kept dallas up the field. that was a lot to do with colt. >> spent a lot of time, especially in the kocooley repo here ripping on jim haslett. >> no, we don't. >> chris, we get into it. jim haslett tonight, though. tell me what you thought about his performance. >> i think jim was outstanding. he came up with a lot of blitz packages, that put pressure on the quarterback. four different guys in there free. jim has us creating schemes where it's not just someone, but they're free runners. that's smart defense. >> what does this win tell you about the washington redskins right now? we all criticize him for not having enough heart, not preparing enough. and they go out tonight and beat the dallas cowboys. >> one thing i've learned from this team the last three weeks, they do have heart and effort and will play when down in games. you watch offensive linemen or defense rallying. they did it again tonight and just found something, a spark. figured out how to make plays tonight. they can keel rolling with that type of momentum. they're better than you give them credit for. >> a win on the football field,

a disaster at wallops island. we'll have more on this story on "nightly news" and again at 11:00 tonight. 11:00 tonight. >> no. injuries there. after filling out their hogan iquestionaire, aight. hogan was awarded an a- from the nra. but now he refuses to release his responses. the nra opposes comprehensive background checks. they want to weaken maryland's gun safety laws. even support letting suspects on the fbi terror watch list buy guns. on gun safety and terror, the nra is wrong. hogan gets an a- from the nra. on protecting maryland, we just can't trust him.

on our broadcast tonight, hitting back. as another american ebola survivor is released, the president comes out swinging in this fight over quarantines. also tonight our team takes us to the crisis with americans battling to contain it. stepping up security. late word from the feds of a change coming in washington perhaps at a federal building near you prompted by the recent attack in canada and continued threats from isis. downhill run. as lava now flows into a residential neighborhood reaching the destination that everyone feared. and the price you pay. at&t in trouble again. if the service on your phone has been running slower than you thought it should, there may be a very good reason. "nightly news" begins now. >> announcer: from nbc news