KZBlog

Following the Russian Dnepr rocket which crashed taking off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan last year, A Russian Proton rocket crashed in Karaganda Thursday. No one was hurt as the rocket crashed in an uninhabited area about 30 miles southwest of Zhezkazgan and the rocket was unmanned, carrying only a Japanese satellite.

However the environmental damage to Karaganda will be investigated, as the rocket was carrying more than 220 tons of fuel, including highly toxic heptyl. Investigators found a crater 147 feet wide and fragments of debris weighing as much as 880 lbs. The RFE/RL article quotes the Prime Minister:

“At the moment the relevant units of the Emergency Ministry are examining the area [of the crash],” Prime Minister Karim Masimov told reporters in Astana. “Those who are guilty will be punished and the ecological damage to our country will be compensated for by those responsible. The situation is under government control.”

Proton rocket launches have been suspended until the cause of the crash can be determined.

During take-off, the rocket failed and then went off-course:

The rocket failed 139 seconds after its launch from the Russian-rented Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan, and its second and third stages veered from the planned trajectory at an altitude of 46 miles, said Alexander Vorobyov, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roskosmos.

It is approximately 400km or 240 miles from Baikonur to Zhezkazgan.

There have been a total of 6 “serious situations” stemming from failed launches at Baikonur since 1996, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection indicated that environmental regulations would have to be tightened. Two of those incidents involved Proton rockets. Most recently, in July of last year, a Dnepr rocket also failed in take-off and spread fuel all over the countryside. That matter has been settled, but it led to contentious relations between Kazakhstan and Russia during the negotiating period.

The incident may also lead to fewer people leasing Russian space services to launch their satellites. And Baikonur is also a center of space tourism. Earlier this year a space tourist took off on a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan.

While he was unhurt and located miles from the crash the President was also visiting Karaganda oblast that day.