RADHAKRISHNA RAO / BANGALORE
An explosion triggered by a fire in the solid-propellant space booster plant at India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota island killed six people and injured three others.
The accident, on 23 February, occurred as propellant was being loaded into a test motor after casting and curing. The hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant, used in India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), caught fire and caused $150,000 of damage as technicians were removing a plate in a casting assembly, says the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The motor was not destined for a satellite launcher, but was to be used for testing, and the explosion is not expected to affect India's other space projects. The first, third and strap-on stages of the PSLV use solid-propellant motors, while the GSLV has a solid-propellant first stage based on the first stage of the PSLV.
The incident is similar to the explosion of a solid rocket booster on Brazil's VLS satellite launcher on the launch pad at Alcantara on 22 August last year, killing 22 people. It appears that the VLS motor spontaneously ignited due to a fault in its ignition system.
The PSLV will be used to launch India's first Moon mission in 2008. It will also be used to launch a prototype of a recoverable re-entry vehicle in 2005.
Source: Flight International
