Rocket Blows Up on Launch Pad in Setback for Soviet Space Program
The Soviet Union’s most advanced booster rocket, carrying what an American specialist believes was a spy satellite, exploded seconds after liftoff last week, Tass news agency said Thursday.
The blast nearly destroyed the launch pad and may complicate Soviet efforts to sell launch services to the West, analysts said.
Tass said the Zenit booster broke apart at the Baikonur spaceport in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan on Oct. 4.
Tass said no one was hurt and that a commission is investigating the accident. The brief dispatch did not identify the payload or give any other details.
American author-researcher James Oberg said, however, that he believes the payload was a military spy satellite.
Nikolai Semyonov, head of the Soviet space agency’s international department, said further Zenit launches have been put on hold.
The Soviet space program has suffered several setbacks in the last year, including the loss of two Mars probes and an exit hatch malfunction on the orbiting Mir manned station.
The program also has faced spending cuts by legislators trying to trim a budget deficit. Officials are trying to make up for the cuts by wooing foreign customers.
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