Future
launches of a converted ballistic missile now used to loft satellites spaceward
are on hold as investigators hunt for clues to learn why the Dnepr
rocket crashed on the steppes of Kazakhstan last week, according to Russian
wire reports.
"Roscosmos [the
Federal Space Agency] has suspended launches of Dnepr carrier rockets until the
commission investigating the crash causes completes its work," Igor Panarin, a
Federal Space Agency spokesperson, told Russia's Interfax News Agency. "Roscosmos
head Anatoly Perminov bound the commission to submit its conclusions by August
28."
An ISC
Kosmotras Dnepr rocket carrying 18
small satellites crashed about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Baikonur Cosmodrome
less than two minutes after launch according to initial reports, though Interfax
reports stated Tuesday that the rocket's crash radius extended some 93 miles (150 kilometers) from its launch pad. A malfunction with one of the booster's three stages was initially cited as a potential cause of the crash.
The failure
came two weeks after a successful
Dnepr launch of a U.S.-built
inflatable module designed to serve as a prototype for future manned
vehicles in orbit. Two days after the Dnepr crash, another converted missile -
a Rockot booster - successfully
launched a South Korean satellite into orbit from Russia's Plesetsk
Cosmodrome after suffering its own failure
in 2005.
The Dnepr's
crash spewed to 1,000 times the acceptable amount of toxic heptyl rocket fuel around
an uninhabited area of Kazakhstan's Kyzylorda region, according to Interfax
and Associated Press reports.
Alexei
Yablokov, an environmentalist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
told Interfax that cleaning up the contaminated region will be a hefty
job.
"The cost
of the problem is some $10 million, in my estimate," Yablokov told Interfax,
adding that removing and burying the contaminated soil is among the few options
to clean up crews. "No clearly developed or effective method for dealing with
disasters of this kind is known today."
Russia's
Federal Space Agency has pledged to compensate Kazakhstan for the environmental
damage caused by the heptyl contamination, but local officials took heart that
no one appears to have been injured in the Dnepr crash.
"A medical examination
of residents in the villages of Zhanakala and Kuandariya revealed no health
disorders as of July 31, 2006," Azamat Abdymomunov, who serves as Kazakhstan's
deputy education and science minister in charge of a government commission
handling the Dnepr failure, told Russian reporters Tuesday.
According
to wire reports, the largest concentrations of heptyl contamination were found
within 492 feet (150 meters) of the Dnepr booster's crash site.
"The
nearest village is 35 kilometers from the site of the crash," said Igor Panarin,
a Federal Space Agency spokesperson, in an Interfax interview. "Water
samples tested yesterday indicate that there are no fuel components in the
water. This inspires optimism."
Despite the
hold on Dnepr launches, Russian space officials said the accident will not force
an abandonment of future Dnepr or Proton rocket space shots fueled by heptyl
propellant. The current investigation, however, must be complete before a Dnepr
booster launches again, they added.
Crash
investigators said that a 1999 agreement between Russian space officials and
Kazakhstan, home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport, clearly states that the
RS-20 rockets used to develop Dnepr boosters should be tabled until an accident
investigation is complete.
"It says
that 'pending efforts to establish the cause of the disaster, the use of RS-20
rockets [at Baikonur] must be suspended," Abdymomunov told Interfax.
Also known as SS-18 rockets in the U.S., the Dnepr booster is a 111-foot (34-meter) tall launch vehicle with a 10-foot (three-meter) diameter and draws on three stages to reach orbit.
The
announcement their flight suspension comes a few days before the planned Aug. 4 launch of a Russian
Proton M rocket to orbit the Hot Bird 8 telecommunications satellite for the Paris-based
Eutelsat, but that flight is not expected to be affected.
The McLean,
Virginia-based firm International Launch Services - not the joint
Ukraine-Russia effort of ISC Kosmotras - is managing the Proton M's mission,
which is set to liftoff Friday at 5:48 p.m. EDT (2148 GMT). It will be 3:48
a.m. on Aug. 5 at the Proton M's Baikonur launch pad.
"We're
still on track," ILS spokesperson Fran Slimmer told SPACE.com. "They rolled
out to the pad today."
This
report is a combination of multiple Aug. 1 Interfax, Associated Press and SPACE.com
reports.
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