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Officials have confirmed that it will take around one year to repair the damage done to the launch pad caused by the Antares explosion.

The rocket blew up six seconds after taking off on 28 October from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia

But Orbital Sciences, who manufacture and operate the rocket, say they could be ready to launch another as soon as 2016. 

Officials have confirmed the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launchpad in Virginia (shown after the explosion) could be repaired as soon as 2015. The Antares rocket exploded seconds after lift-off on 28 October, but in a statement it was revealed the pad escaped severe damage

The Antares rocket took off as planned from Pad 0A on 28 October at 6:22pm EDT (local time).

But just a few seconds into the flight the rocket failed, falling back to Earth in an enormous fiery explosion.

Amazingly, however, despite the huge fireball that erupted, the pad appears to have escaped severe damage - meaning normal operations can resume relatively swiftly.

Zig Leszczynski, deputy executive director of the Virginia Commerical Space Flight Authority, which owns and operates launch pads at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, confirmed the extent of the damage in a statement.

'Major elements of the Pad 0A launch complex infrastructure, including the Launch Pad, Liquid Fuel Facility (LFF) and Water Tower, escaped severe damage during the catastrophic failure of Orbital Science Corporation's Antares rocket shortly after liftoff,' he said.

Mr Leszczynski added that officials from Nasa, Orbital and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport had begun removing contaminated soil from the launch site and were pumping out water, reported the Daily Press. 

Last week the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority then revealed it would take just a year to repair the damage.

Repairs to the launch pad and its facilities are expected to cost between £8.3 million and £12.8 million ($13 million and $20 million).

And in a separate release, Orbital confirmed they would launch a new Antares rocket by the end of 2016.

Orbital Sciences have said a new version of Antares could launch as soon as 2016. This will be using new engines, which will be tested in a 'hot fire' next year. Just seconds into the launch a turbopump in one of the engines failed, leading the rocket to experience the catastrophic failure (shown)

The explosion partially contaminated the region around the launchpad. But last week the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority revealed it would take just a year to repair the damage. Repairs to the launch pad and its facilities are expected to cost between £8.3 million and £12.8 million ($13 million and $20 million)

Antares is contracted under Nasa's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) programme to carry cargo to the ISS using the Cygnus spacecraft.

Cygnus is launched on top of the Antares rocket and had three successful missions under its belt before this catastrophe.

But while Antares is being rebuilt, Orbital say they will launch Cygnus on other rockets to fulfill their contract demands with Nasa.

What rockets these will be, however, has not yet been revealed. 

'Under the new approach and in line with Orbital's existing CRS contract, all remaining cargo will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2016,' said the company.

'There will be no cost increase to Nasa and only minor adjustments will be needed to the cargo manifest in the near term.'

Orbital also confirmed they will seek a new propulsion system upgrade for Antares, as it was believed the Russian engines used on the October launch were the reason for the failure.

The company will perform a 'hot fire' test of the new engines next year to ensure they work as planned.  

Cameras recovered from the launch pad in Virginia shed new light on disaster (still image shown).The remotely operated cameras captured the explosion up-close in incredible detail.

Last month footage compiled by websites Zero-G News and America Space revealed the explosion in unprecedented detail.

Remotely operated cameras recently recovered from the launch pad captured the explosion - and one even revealed footage from inside the resultant cloud of dust and debris. 

The sites explained that, as their cameras were so close to the launchpad, they had not been hopeful of retrieving much, if any, of the data.

And they were also restricted from retrieving their data after lift-off owing to the obviously hazardous conditions.

But incredibly, four cameras from journalists working for the two websites did survive, 'and the footage is nothing short of spectacular', said AmericaSpace.

'The initial lift-off looked flawless. Then, suddenly, the exhaust turned bright yellow and became far brighter than usual,' said Elliot Severn, a launch photojournalist for Zero-G News and StarTalk Radio.

'That's when we knew things were about to get bad. The vehicle seemed to hang in the air and started to burn, it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

'It fell in a pillar of fire and exploded on impact, and we could feel the heat on our face from 1.5 miles [2.4km] away.

Seconds later the shockwave hit, and we all ran for the buses to evacuate. We had little hope of any cameras surviving.'

Footage of the Antares rocket disaster from the launch pad

The Nasa-funded rocket exploded on its way to the ISS (shown) just six seconds after lift-off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia .The rocket exploded at 6:22pm EDT on 28 October, and was carrying equipment that would have helped hunt for asteroids to mine

Organisations said more than £125 million ($200 million) worth of equipment was destroyed in the huge explosion (previous image shown). Orbital Sciences said it would stop using the type of Russian engines that were employed when its unmanned Antares commercial supply rocket exploded

They explained how in the first aerial surveys of the launch pad they could see their cameras, but they had to wait several weeks to get everything back from the Accident Investigation Board.

One of the cameras was even located very close to the middle of the pad and right in the middle of the explosion.

As dust and debris flies around, the camera somehow manages to survive.  

The rocket was carrying equipment that would have helped hunt for asteroids to mine and also a number of Earth-observation satellites.

Organisations said more than £125 million ($200 million) worth of equipment was destroyed in the huge explosion.