S Korea rocket blast not linked with Russian-made stage operation.

18/6 Tass 74
KOROLEV (Moscow region), June 18 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Space
Agency (Roskosmos) believes the blast of the South Korean delivery vehicle
KSLV-1 (Naro) is not linked with the operation of a Russian-made rocket
stage, Roskosmos deputy chief Vitaly Davydov told a news conference after
the docking of the Soyuz spaceship with the International Space Station
(ISS) on Friday.
"Currently several more or less obvious versions are under
examination," Davydov noted. "I am almost sure that the blast cause is not
in the first rocket stage," he said.
Davydov refrained from comments on any versions in particular, noting
that the investigation results will be reported, when the investigation
committee ends its probe.
The South Korean delivery vehicle KSLV-1 exploded on June 10 reaching
the altitude of about 70 kilometers. The telemetric data stopped coming
from the rocket 136 seconds after the takeoff, when the first stage, which
the Khrunichev State Research and Development Space Center designed and
delivered, was in operation. This first stage is an upper-stage rocket of
the new Russian booster Angara. This South Korean rocket launch was the
second one. The first launch was also abortive in August 2009 caused by a
failure in the operation of the South Korean-made second stage.
-0-baz/mil


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