GPS Satellite Explodes on LAUNCH!!!!!
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| Unmanned Air Force rocket explodes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ASSOCIATED PRESS
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An unmanned rocket carrying a $40 million navigation satellite for the Air Force blew up 13 seconds after liftoff Friday in a spectacular cascade of flaming debris. No injuries were reported. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The cause of the accident was not immediately
known. Nearly 200 people had gathered at two viewing sites, one of them less than a mile away. In addition, 73 launch team members were in the blockhouse next to the pad. When the $55 million Delta rocket exploded at an altitude of 1,589 feet, an Air Force officer announced over a loudspeaker: “Take cover immediately from falling debris. I’ll say again: Take cover immediately from falling debris.” In the typical dry jargon of a launch commentator, McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s Anne Toulouse calmly reported: “We have had an anomaly.” Burning chunks fell to the ocean and a cleared safety zone on Air Force property, the Air Force said. The boom could be heard several miles away. Smoke was still rising from the fragments on the ground an hour later. Sheriff’s deputies advised people to stay indoors with their windows closed for about 90 minutes as a precaution against the towering cloud of smoke. But the Air Force said the cloud quickly drifted offshore and contained hardly any toxic fumes. The rocket was carrying the first in a new generation of Global Positioning System satellites that can enable people to pinpoint time to within a millionth of a second, speed to a fraction of a mile per hour, and location to within a few feet. It was built by Lockheed Martin Corp. |
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| Sparks and
burning debris burst into the air as the rocket crashes to earth.
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 Thirty-eight earlier models have been put into orbit. Air Force officials said the loss of the satellite would not hurt the network of satellites; it was intended as a replacement for an older spacecraft. McDonnell Douglas makes the Delta rocket, considered among the most reliable. Of 241 Delta launches since 1960, this was only the 14th failure. The last time a Delta was destroyed during a launch was 11 years ago. That rocket was blown up by remote control after the liftoff went awry. Jay Witzling, division director of the Delta program for McDonnell Douglas, called Friday’s explosion “heart-rending.” “It’s rather sickening, actually, to see it,” he said. “I know we’ll recover and get back on line, but we’ve got to figure it out.” |
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