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From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet rocket blows up during launch?
Message-ID: <13965@ulysses.att.com>
Date: 29 Oct 90 21:33:57 GMT
References: <3330033@hpindda.cup.hp.com> <1990Oct25.065253.20469@cimage.com>
Sender: netnews@ulysses.att.com
Lines: 29

In article <1990Oct25.065253.20469@cimage.com>, gregc@cimage.com (Greg Cronau) writes:
> In article <3330033@hpindda.cup.hp.com> mears@hpindda.cup.hp.com (David Mears) writes:
> >A couple of weeks (or was that months?) ago, I saw a small sidebar
> >article in the local newspaper about a Soviet heavy lift rocket
> >blowing up early during launch, maybe even on the pad.  It wasn't
> 
> Was this article about a recent event or historic event?
> Around 1967-68 the soviets were working on a booster which we designated the
> "G-1". From satellite photos it became clear that a *major* explosion occurred
> on the pad. No G-1 was ever launched. The G-1 was on about the same scale as
> a Saturn V.

There were two recent articles about Soviet booster explosions.  The
first article was about an abortive launch of one of their biggest
boosters, one whose services they hope to market to Western companies
seeking satellite launches.  That one is new.  The other article for
the first time supplied some details on a disastrous explosion
(long-known in the West) that killed hundreds of people, including
Marshall Nedelin (?), who was in charge of the whole Soviet space
program.  James Oberg has covered that one fairly thoroughly in his
books.  As I recall his explanation, the rocket didn't launch -- the
first stage just didn't fire.  Technicians went out to see what was
wrong.  They didn't realize that the second stage was ignited by a
timer activated by the launch command -- and that that part of the
launch sequence worked...  The engines triggered, on schedule, while
the second stage was still atop a fully-fueled first stage.  (Btw, the
AP story on the recent article quoted Oberg as saying that they
released too few technical details to add anything to what was already
known; the newsworthiness was that a Soviet paper had printed it.)