A booster rocket carrying a Russian military satellite exploded and crashed soon after launch Tuesday in another blow to Russia’s troubled space program.
The explosion was caused by an emergency shutdown of the rocket’s first-stage engines 48 seconds after liftoff from Kazakstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome, officials said.
The remnants of the two-stage, 187-foot Zenit-2 booster and the Kosmos series military satellite it was carrying crashed on the steppe, said military spokesman Ivan Safronov.
An emergency team left to inspect the site of the crash, 17 miles from Baikonur, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The Interfax news agency said experts estimated the damage at $17.2 million.
Russia’s space program, long lacking the Soviet clout and funding, has experienced a series of setbacks, including a fire, a coolant fluid leak and a failure of the main oxygen-generating system aboard the manned Mir space station.
Tuesday’s incident could harm not only Russia’s space program but also that of Ukraine; the rockets are composed of Ukrainian and Russian components.
