- CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- The fiery nighttime explosion of a Delta III
rocket Wednesday was caused by a steering system failure, Boeing Co.'s
chief investigator said Friday.
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- The inaugural flight of the 12-story
rocket ended in disaster about a minute after liftoff when the control
system in three solid propellant boosters ran out of hydraulic fluid.
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- "It's like on your car when you
don't have power steering," said Clarence Quan, Boeing's lead engineer
investigating the $225 million disaster.
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- Out of control, the rocket swung 35 degrees
to the right, broke up and finally exploded. Roger Devivo, a safety officer
at Cape Canaveral, said the rocket exploded with a force equal to 500 pounds
of TNT.
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- "Clearly, we missed something,"
said Quan. Both mechanical and electronic components could be responsible
for the rocket wobbling out of control, he said.
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- Boeing engineers are trying to determine
if the rocket's steering system overreacted to unexpected
movements or if computer software or hardware problems
were blame.
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- The rocket was carrying the Galaxy 10
communications satellite for PanAmSat Corp. The satellite crashed in a
fireball into the Atlantic Ocean about 15 miles offshore.
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- As a precaution, Boeing will delay the
launch of its less- powerful Delta II rocket, which was scheduled to lift
off September 1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
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- The Delta II will place five satellites
into orbit for Motorola's Iridium mobile phone network.
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- Both Delta rockets use the same guidance
system but different software, and Delta III can haul twice the cargo of
Delta II.
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- It was designed by Boeing to compete
with rivals European Ariane and Lockheed Martin CorpAtlas for lucrative
commercial launch contracts.
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