RUSSIA: Doubts were raised about the future of Russia's ailing space programme after an unmanned rocket carrying a research satellite exploded on takeoff late on Tuesday night. The explosion killed one Russian soldier on the ground and wounded eight others.
The cause of the explosion, which partly destroyed the launch pad, is unclear, but the authorities immediately announced a criminal investigation, suspecting negligence.
The 300-tonne Soyuz-U rocket exploded 29 seconds after takeoff from the Plesetsk launch site, 400 miles north of Moscow. A mission control officer said it was the first accident involving the Soyuz booster rocket for 11 years.
The rocket is similar to the one scheduled to send personnel to the international space station (ISS) on October 28th, although Mr Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for Russia's space authority, said there were no plans to delay the mission.
The fallout will be felt across Russia's cash-strapped space programme, which announced late last month that it might have to withdraw from the US $93 billion ISS because Moscow could not meet its financial obligations. To raise funds, Energia, the Russian corporation co-ordinating the ISS project, already takes "space tourists" to the orbiting station, at US $20 million a trip.
The rocket launched yesterday was carrying a Foton-M satellite intended as an orbital laboratory.
Officials used the accident to express concerns at Moscow's persistent under-funding. Ms Yelena Kondakova, a female astronaut and engineer, who is also a member of the Russian parliament, said: "We can't speak concretely about the causes of this explosion . . . But our industry is in decline. The minister in charge of the industry, Ilya Klebanov, is not up to the job, and doesn't do enough to protect our interests."
She said she feared for the future, claiming that with the budget already drawn up, the government was unwilling to hand over extra money. She also feared production quality could fall because fewer rockets were being made: "You drive a car better the more you use it. It is the same in production."- (Guardian Service)