Foton-M1 was an unmanned space mission by the European Space Agency aboard a Russian Soyuz-U rocket that failed to launch successfully. The rocket's payload consisted of 44 experiments prepared by the European Space Agency, Fluidpac, Biopan, Telescience Support Unit, and others. The mission was supposed to consist of 15 days spent in orbit of the Earth and then re-enter for a landing near the Russia-Kazakhstan border.[1]
The launch occurred at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on October 15, 2002 at 18:20. The launch failed after one of the rocket's five engines did not start, resulting in an unstable flight plan. Approximately fifteen seconds after lift-off, the rocket fell back to the launch pad and exploded. The explosion killed 20-year-old soldier Ivan Marchenko, who had been watching the launch from behind a large glass window in a processing facility a kilometre from the launch pad. Eight other soldiers who were with Marchenko were injured, six being hospitalized. Rocket fragments fell in the woods in the same area starting a forest fire, and a Block D strap-on booster which came off during disintegration impacted the launch pad, causing structural damage. The rocket and all its experimental payload were a complete loss.
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