Brigadier Tiago da Silva Ribeiro, director of Brazil's Aerospace Technology Centre (CTA), has disclosed preliminary findings after an accident on 23 August destroyed the third prototype of the VLS-1 satellite launch vehicle and killed 21 CTA engineers. Initially working with the hypothesis that an external electrical discharge sparked ignition of the launch vehicle's "A" booster, the VLS-1 accident investigation commission found evidence to indicate that an electrical discharge did occur - but inside the rocket.
Source: Flight International
