CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An apparent hardware malfunction caused a prototype NASA lander to crash and explode seconds into a test flight Thursday at Kennedy Space Center, destroying the vehicle.

Around 12:40 p.m., the lander called Morpheus rose 10 feet from its pad near the center of the shuttle runway before it turned over, fell to the ground and burst into flames.

A dramatic, larger explosion followed about 12 seconds later, according to video of the event streamed live online and broadcast later in the afternoon on NASA TV.

KSC firefighters controlled the blaze. No one was injured




[url[http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2012-08-10/nasa-lander-explosion/56929768/1