RSF@SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP (10/01/83)
From: Ross Finlayson <RSF@SU-AI>
a226 1149 01 Oct 83
AM-Space Accident,520
Soviet Rocket Burns on Launch Pad; Crew Saved
By HOWARD BENEDICT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Soviet rocket burst into flames on a remote
launch pad in Asia last week, forcing the ejection of three cosmonauts
who parachuted to safety, U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday.
The sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said the cosmonauts may
have been injured in the accident last Tuesday.
The accident is as serious a setback as the manned Soviet space
program is known to have suffered, the sources said.
The cosmonauts were saved when their Soyuz spaceship was jerked away
from the booster by an escape rocket mounted atop the capsule, the
sources said.
They said the flash fire occurred as the liquid-fuel rocket was
about to blast off and send the cosmonauts, one of whom may have been
a woman, to relieve the crew aboard the orbiting Salyut 7 space
station.
The sources said there is a possibility the cosmonauts could have
been hurt in the accident because of the abrupt ejection. Their
mission was designated T-10, as it would have been the 10th mission of
the Soyuz-T program.
''The escape rocket really pulled the capsule away with a slam bang.
The cosmonauts are subjected to 15 Gs for two to three seconds,''
said one source, referring to a gravitational force 15 times that
normally felt on Earth.
''That's like driving a car into a tree,'' he said.
The sources declined to say where they got their information, but it
is known that the United States has an intelligence network that
includes spy satellites and radar listening posts along the Soviet
border.
Earlier reports were that the T-10 rocket had exploded on the launch
pad, but the sources said they were fairly certain the accident was
caused by a fire. They did not rule out the possibility of a blast,
however.
The Soyuz rocket is fueled by some 270 tons of highly flammable
kerosene and liquid oxygen. The space shuttle, the only U.S.
spacecraft now in operation, is boosted into orbit by a pair of
solid-fuel rockets and three main engines fueled by liquid hydrogen
and liquid oxygen.
Prior to 1981, the United States used the same liquid fuel in its
rockets as the Soviets now use in the Soyuz craft.
The Soviets have not made any public announcements about the
incident. Myron Nagurney, senior duty officer for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, said Friday night he had no
information about such an accident.
The intelligence sources said the fire occurred about 1:38 a.m.
Tuesday, at the launch site, or 11:38 p.m. Monday, Moscow time. That
would have been 4:38 p.m. EDT Monday.
The cosmonauts now aboard Salyut 7 were scheduled to come home this
week or next. It is not known how much longer they will now be forced
to remain in orbit.
The only other known Soviet launching abort took place in April of
1975, when two cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 18A made an emergency landing
in the Alpine Mountains after the third stage of their rocket failed.
That rocket was launched from the same pad as the one that burned
last Tuesday.
ap-ny-10-01 1450EDT
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