Engineer Injured in Blast at Rocketdyne Fuel Lab

A Rocketdyne engineer lost a hand and suffered burns Thursday in an explosion at a company solid rocket fuel laboratory in the northwestern San Fernando Valley, officials said.

The blast set off other small explosions and caused a small fire in a nearby building.

Engineer Richard Kistner, 52, was taken to West Hills Hospital after the accident, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. at a Rocketdyne field lab in the Santa Susana Mountains above the Chatsworth Reservoir, said Pat Coulter, director of communications for Rocketdyne Division.

After his condition had stabilized, Kistner was transferred to UCLA Medical Center, where he underwent surgery for the loss of his left hand and for burns on his chest and face, hospital officials said. He was in surgery Thursday night and his condition was not available.

There were no other injuries, Coulter said.

Kistner, a 31-year employee of Rocketdyne, had been in a one-man lab mixing a small quantity of solid propellant used to make rocket fuel, Coulter said. It was not known what kind of fuel was involved, he said.

Mixing solid propellants is considered a routine procedure at the Rocketdyne facility, where experiments with fuels are performed, Coulter said. Engineers are required to keep a log of their procedures, so that in the event of an accident investigators will be able to determine the cause, he said.

Minor Detonations

A small fire ignited in a nearby building by the blast was quickly extinguished by the Rocketdyne fire department, Coulter said.

The blast area was sealed by Rocketdyne investigators, Coulter said. The cause of the accident and the amount of damage were not known, he said.

Rocketdyne is a division of Rockwell International Corp., which builds and tests the main engines of the space shuttle and houses research, engineering and administrative operations as well.

The last explosion at the facility occurred three years ago, Coulter said. In that incident, a research chemist was severely burned in an accident similar to the one Thursday--while mixing solid propellants used to make rocket fuel--and the one-man laboratory he had been working in was heavily damaged.