- BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters)
-- An explosion on Friday destroyed a Brazilian rocket due for blast off
in coming days and killed 19 people at its jungle launch site, ending Brazil's
third attempt to fulfill a long-held dream of becoming a space power.
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- A further 20 people were seriously wounded in the explosion,
which sent a huge plume of smoke into the air above the tropical headland
sticking into the Atlantic Ocean where the launch base is situated.
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- "Nineteen people died and there are about 20 seriously
wounded," said Raimundo de Souza, a Public Security spokesman for
the northeastern state of Maranhao.
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- Both civilians and military officials were killed, he
said.
-
- Television showed amateur footage of smoke billowing
far into the sky. The explosion was heard dozens of miles away in the town
of Sao Luis.
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- Officials said the rocket was not in the process of being
launched when it blew up.
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- There was no immediate explanation for the cause of the
blast at the base where roughly 800 people were preparing the $6.5 million,
65-foot rocket for its scheduled launch next week.
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- It was sitting in a large structure on the launch pad
at Brazil's tropical Alcantara space base on a jungle peninsula jutting
into the ocean when the accident happened at 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30
p.m. EDT).
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- Brazil had been hoping to make the first successful venture
into space by a Latin American nation. Rockets launched by Brazil in 1997
and 1999 were destroyed shortly after lift-off because of technical problems.
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- Experts have been working since the beginning of July
to assemble the so-called Satellite Launch Vehicle.
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- The rocket was going through final tests up to Aug. 24,
after which officials at the base said it would have been ready to initiate
the launch sequence.
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- Officials said this week there had been no glitches so
far.
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- The rocket was to have transported two small satellites,
carrying positioning equipment, a communications transmitter and energy
source. They were to have been released into low orbit about 470 miles
above the Earth less than eight minutes after blastoff.
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- The launch pad is situated in a heavily guarded section
of the huge space base.
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- First word of the accident reached Brasilia at the same
time as the head of the Brazilian Space Agency was holding a news conference
with his Ukrainian counterpart about a deal to launch Ukrainian Cyclone
rockets from Alcantara.
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- "This sad accident should not and will not influence
relations between Brazil and Ukraine," said Valeriy Komarov, the head
of the Ukrainian Space Agency.
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- Brazil has aspirations for Alcantara to become a major
international commercial satellite launch center.
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- The base is close to the Equator, allowing rockets to
use less fuel to reach orbit and carry larger payloads because they catch
a ride on the Earth's centrifugal forces.
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- - Additional reporting by Natuza Nery
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