Space Accidents and Incidents - Non-astronaut Fatalities - Fatalities Caused By Rocket Explosions

Fatalities Caused By Rocket Explosions

Date Place Death(s) Rocket Description
1930/5/17 Berlin, Germany 1 Max Valier killed by rocket engine explosion.
1931/2/2 Mount Redoria near Milan, Italy 1 A liquid fueled, 132-pound meteorological rocket, that was constructed by American physicist, Dr. Darwin Lyon, exploded during tests, killing a mechanic and injuring three others. Dr. Lyon was not present when the explosion occurred.
1933/10/10 Germany 3 Explosion in rocket manufacturing room of Reinhold Tiling
1934/7/16 Kummersdorf, Germany 3 Ground test engine explosion
1944? Tuchola Forest, German-occupied Poland 7 A4-rocket An A4-rocket crashes at a test launch in a trench. Several soldiers who were in the trench were killed.
1960/10/24 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR 78-120 R-16 missile The Nedelin catastrophe resulted in the deaths of 78-120 soldiers when an ICBM's second stage rocket ignited prematurely. This type was not used in the Soviet Space Program.
1964/4/14 Cape Canaveral, USA 3 Delta rocket The third stage of a Delta rocket had just been joined to the Orbiting Solar Observatory satellite in the spin test facility building at Cape Kennedy. Eleven workers were in the room when the 205 kg of solid fuel in the third stage ignited. Sidney Dangle, 29; Lot D. Gabel, 51, and John Fassett, 30, were severely burned and later died of their injuries. Eight others were injured, but survived. The ignition was caused by a spark of static electricity.
1964/5/7 Braunlage, West Germany 3 Mail rocket Mail rocket built by Gerhard Zucker exploded and debris hit crowd of spectators.
1965/8/9 Searcy, Arkansas, United States 53 LGM-25C Titan II While upgrading a type of ICBM also used by NASA for space launches, an explosion occurred killing 53 of 55 contractors.
1966/12/14 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR 1 Soyuz Second unmanned Soyuz test flight. Launch escape system fired 27 minutes after an aborted launch causing a fire and subsequent explosion when pad workers had already returned to the launch pad.
1973/6/26 Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR 9 Kosmos-3M launch vehicle Launch explosion of Kosmos-3M rocket
1978/8/24 Rock, Kansas, United States 1 LGM-25C Titan II A single airman killed when a missile leaked propellant.
1980/3/18 Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR 48 Vostok-2M launch vehicle Explosion while fueling up a Vostok-2M rocket
1990/9/7 Edwards AFB, CA United States 1 Titan 4 A Titan 4 launch vehicle solid rocket booster was being hoisted by a crane into a rocket test stand at Edwards AFB, California. The bottom section of the booster broke free, hit the ground and ignited. One person, Alan M. Quimby, 27, a civilian employee of Wyle Laboratories, was killed and 9 others were injured in the accident.
1991/8/9 Komaki, Aichi, Japan 1 H-II launch vehicle Engineer Arihiro Kanaya, 23, was conducting a high pressure endurance test on a pipe used in the first stage rocket engine of the H-2 (H-II) launch vehicle when it exploded. The explosion caused a 14 cm thick door in the testing room to fall on Kanaya and fracture his skull, killing him. The accident happened at the Nagoya Guidance and Propulsion Systems Works Of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Komaki, Aichi, Japan.
1993/2/27 Esrange, Sweden 1 A technician from Sweden was killed when a sounding rocket ignited during testing of its ignition system at the European Sounding Rocket Range (Esrange), located outside the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden.
1995/1/26 Xichang, China 6+ Long March rocket Long March rocket veered off course after launch
1996/2/15 Xichang, China 6-100 Long March rocket Intelsat 708 Satellite, a Long March rocket, veered off course immediately after launch, crashing in the nearby village only 22 seconds later. and destroying 80 houses. According to official Chinese reports there were 6 fatalities and 57 injuries resulting from the incident, but other accounts estimated 100 fatalities.
2002/10/15 Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia 1 Soyuz-U A Soyuz-U exploded 29 seconds after launch, killing a soldier, Ivan Marchenko, and injuring 8 others. Fragments of the rocket started a forest fire nearby, and a Block D strap-on booster caused damage to the launchpad.
2003/8/22 Alcântara, Brazil 21 VLS-3 Explosion of an unmanned rocket during launch preparations (see Brazilian rocket explosion)
2007/7/26 Mojave Spaceport, California 3 Explosion during a test of rocket systems by Scaled Composites during a nitrous oxide injector test

Read more about this topic:  Space Accidents And Incidents, Non-astronaut Fatalities

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