Brazil rocket explodes, kills 21

A brazilian rocket exploded on Friday and killed 21 people after an engine ignited by mistake days before a planned lift-off from a jungle l...

A brazilian rocket exploded on Friday and killed 21 people after an engine ignited by mistake days before a planned lift-off from a jungle launch site.

The disaster ended Brazil8217;s third attempt to fulfil a long-held dream of becoming a space power. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the explosion, which sent a huge plume of smoke into the air above the tropical headland jutting into the Atlantic Ocean where the Alcantara launch base is situated.

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8216;8216;Twenty-one people died and there are about 20 seriously wounded,8217;8217; said Raimundo de Souza, a Public Security spokesman for the state of Maranhao.

In Brasilia, Defence Minister Jose Viegas said 8216;8216;apparently8217;8217; 16 were killed but a full count was not yet ready. Viegas said the explosion was caused when one of the rocket8217;s four engines ignited by mistake.

8216;8216;The President profoundly laments the death of the officials at Alcantara base,8217;8217; President Lula da Silva8217;s spokesman said.

Nearly 800 people were preparing the 6.5 million, 65-foot rocket for its scheduled launch next week. The unmanned rocket was to have carried two satellites into space. Officials said the rocket was undergoing tests upto August 24, after which it would have been ready to start the launch sequence.

Brazil had been hoping to make the first successful venture into space by a Latin American nation. Rockets launched by Brazil in 1997 and 1999 were destroyed shortly after lift-off because of technical problems. The rocket was to have transported two small satellites that were to have been released into low orbit about 750 km above Earth less than eight minutes after blast-off. Reuters