CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A Russian Soyuz-U rocket exploded 29 seconds after launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian space officials said Tuesday.
There were no reports of any injuries or damage as a result of debris falling to the ground.
Lost in the accident was the Foton-M research spacecraft, a satellite intended to orbit 44 microgravity experiments supplied by Russia and the European Space Agency, as well as the United States and Japan. A recovery module was to have returned the experiments to Earth on Oct. 31 after making 16 orbits.
The 141-foot (43-meter) rocket lifted off from the northern Russian launch site at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT) Tuesday. It was the ninth launch this year from Plesetsk.
Radar contact with the rocket was lost about a half-minute later. It is unclear if the rocket exploded on its own, if range safety officials destroyed the rocket after detecting a problem or possibly both.
At the time of the loss of vehicle the Soyuz-U's first stage was still firing and the booster was approaching or possibly at Max Q -- an engineering term for the point where a rocket is experiencing the most stress as it speeds through the denser parts of the lower atmosphere.
One theory investigators will consider is the possibility that aerodynamic forces caused a structural failure of something like the rocket's nose cone. Such a failure would have caused a fast break up of the vehicle and the rapid burning of any exposed propellant spilling from its ruptured tanks.Russian media reports said that a state commission would be organized to investigate the incident. The launch was conducted by the Russian Space Forces, a branch of the military that operates the launch facility in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia about 800 miles (1,200 kilometers) north of Moscow.
The Soyuz-U rocket is similar, but not identical, to the version flown from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which launches Soyuz lifeboats and Progress cargo freighters to the International Space Station (ISS). Its heritage goes back to the original Soviet rockets that carried Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin into orbit.
"What's critical to realize is that there's several brands of Soyuz. There's a variety of versions here," said Jim Oberg, a Houston-based aerospace consultant who is a respected authority on the Russian space program.
The next Soyuz scheduled for launch is targeted for liftoff at 10:59 p.m. EST Oct. 27 (0359 GMT Oct. 28) from Baikonur with a three-man taxi crew destined for the ISS. They are to dock two days later, spend a week visiting the Expedition Five crew and then return to Earth in another spacecraft launched to the station in April.
This upcoming flight is the same mission that might have carried 'NSYNC pop star Lance Bass had that deal worked out.
NASA space station officials had no comment yet on whether Tuesday's Soyuz incident would delay the taxi flight's start in two weeks.
The timing of NASA's next space shuttle launch on Nov. 10 is directly linked to the taxi flight as both missions cannot be happening at the same time.
Given the way Russia spends more on building and testing the manned Soyuz rockets compared to the unmanned rocket, Oberg said there would be little reason to delay the taxi mission.
"There's no reason to suspect that this regrettable, but not unexpected, failure would have any impact on the manned rated versions," Oberg said. "The Russians spend a lot more effort on this version and their perfect reliability record over the past two decades shows the result."
There have been more than 150 successful launches of the man-rated version since 1983, Oberg said. That number includes launches of the Progress freighters, which count on the more reliable version of Soyuz.
Soyuz spacecraft -- not to be confused with the booster rocket of the same name -- docked at the ISS must be replaced every six months with a fresh vehicle.
"Slowing down is just as bad as blowing up. They have to get that Soyuz up there within a few weeks of the launch date or the Expedition crew will have to come back. But I have every reason to expect that the Soyuz will go up safely at, or soon after, the planned date," Oberg said.
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