Fwd: John Kelly: Russian rocket explosion reminds us that vigilance is key

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 7, 2013 12:13:30 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: John Kelly: Russian rocket explosion reminds us that vigilance is key

 

FLORIDA TODAY

Jul. 6, 2013 2:18 PM

 

John Kelly: Russian rocket explosion reminds us that vigilance is key

 

The imagery is haunting and sobering.

 

A rocket in flight, its tail beginning to waggle, a telltale sign something is very wrong. Then, a more pronounced swaying and then tumbling. Disaster inevitable. A burst of flame. The rocket coming apart. Careening sideways, back to Earth, engulfed in fire. A gigantic red, gray and black mix of fire and toxic cloud as its remnants slam into the ground.

 

This time around, it was a Russian Proton rocket. The crash site was a remote area near the launch complex. But, people on the Space Coast, veterans in an unforgiving industry, watch warily knowing that, but for extreme diligence and good luck, it could have happened here.

 

The fiery loss of the Proton rocket Tuesday prompted conversation around here about the small margins in which the space-launch industry operates, about the run of launch successes that we've experienced at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral in this millenium, and about an ever-present need to remain vigilant.

 

It was the late 1990s when the Space Coast last experienced this kind of frightening, fiery loss of a launch vehicle and its payload. FLORIDA TODAY's veteran aerospace reporter Todd Halvorson recalled a string of launch failures around that time.

 

The scariest perhaps was the low-altitude explosion of a Delta II rocket carrying a Global Positioning Satellite in January 1997, raining chunks of flaming debris over Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as nearby reporters darted for cover. Video of that incident makes it look like an overdone movie war scene, with fiery rain and secondary explosions all around.

 

There was also the explosive failure of a monstrous Titan IV rocket in August 1998 about 40 seconds into flight, resulting in the loss of a top-secret spy satellite and one of the largest space accident recovery incidents ever. That same month, a Delta III was lost on the model's maiden flight. The military and private contractor launch teams at the Cape spent considerable time in the years after reflecting on the safety procedures, understanding what went wrong in each case, and trying to institute lessons learned.

 

In the unmanned launch business, though, Halvorson and I were talking this week about how remarkable it is that the Space Coast and the U.S. industry overall have had such a long streak of launch successes this past decade.

 

We wondered whether this recent string of problems with Russian launch vehicles might not be indicative of some broader cultural issue or process problem within their industry that's worthy of the kind of exhaustive review that happens after U.S. space accidents. A weakness in the Russian space program now can ripple through our own, because of our reliance on their rockets and vehicles to keep the International Space Station operational.

 

But, more than anything, the accident this week is a sobering reminder that space is hard and it requires a special kind of attention to detail unseen in most industries. Hats off to the men and women who keep our rockets flying safely. May they remain ever vigilant.

 

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