Pilot captures spectacular vision of Antares explosion through cockpit window

A pilot flying near the NASA facility where a privately owned unmanned rocket spectacularly exploded shortly after launch on Tuesday has captured the incident on video.

Ed Sealing was flying near Wallops Island off Virginia, where the rocket was being launched, hoping to catch a glimpse of the takeoff, but he caught so much more.

Cruising at 3000 feet, he filmed on his iPad as the Antares rocket owned by private space company Orbital Sciences caught fire, before the launch safety officer ordered the craft to self-destruct.

His video shows a brilliant orange fireball that illuminates the land and sky for miles around the launch site.

"I'll be honest, I've never seen a rocket launched before," Sealing told USA Today. "And I still haven't…. It was definitely dramatic."

While the official cause of the rocket's explosion is yet to be determined, some reports are singling out the aging Soviet-era AJ-26 engines – built by the Russians in the 1960s and already slated for retirement before the most recent accident.

The Orbital Sciences flight was due to deliver supplies to the International Space Station as part of a $2 billion contract the company has with NASA.