ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611180141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Russian Mars-bound spacecraft that failed to break out of Earth orbit shortly after launch Saturday re-entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean Sunday night and tumbled harmlessly into the sea far off Chile, U.S. officials said.
Earlier, however, international tracking stations and Russian and U.S. space experts had predicted that the 6-ton spacecraft's degrading trajectory would probably send it back to Earth on a path that could have scattered debris over northern Australia.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard went on television with a warning about the impending re-entry of the 7 1/2-foot-long space vehicle and to appeal for calm. Although experts said most of the craft probably would burn up in the atmosphere, U.S. officials noted at the time that two 500-pound Mars-landing vehicles aboard were dense and sturdy enough to survive re-entry and strike the Earth's surface.
In addition, space officials said, the craft was fitted with four batteries containing a total of 200 grams of plutonium - in the form of pellets the size of pencil erasers - that probably would survive re-entry, posing what they called a remote risk of radioactive contamination.
The probe had been thought to be heading for Australia, prompting fears of the first crash of space wreckage into a populated area.
In a worst-case situation - which Clinton administration officials called ``extremely unlikely'' - the radioactive canisters could have broken up in the atmosphere and created a small radioactive cloud.
``If some cloud of dispersal were formed at a lower altitude and were inhaled by humans, it could be lethal,'' said Robert Bell, senior director for arms control on the U.S. national security council.
U.S. officials said Russian authorities had assured them the batteries would not break open during descent or on impact. If they were to shatter in the atmosphere, the officials said, they could create a small radioactive cloud that would be lethal to anyone who came in contact with it; if they were to break on the ground, the only risk would be to those who came near enough to touch them.
The space craft re-entered the atmosphere just after 8:30 p.m. EDT in the Pacific 900 miles southeast of Easter Island and 1,800 miles west of Santiago, Chile, said Alan Hodges, director general of Australia's federal disaster coordination agency.
``There's no way for us to tell whether anything survived re-entry,'' said Navy Cmdr. David Knox, a spokesman for the U.S. space program, adding that to the best of his knowledge all remnants of the craft had simply vanished into the sea.
President Clinton, who was vacationing in Hawaii on Sunday and by coincidence was scheduled to leave this morning to visit Australia, discussed the potential danger with space officials. He also called Howard to offer whatever U.S. assistance that Australia might need.
Howard, saying Clinton informed him of the emergency by telephone, indirectly criticized Russia for failing to do the same.
``It's obviously one of those situations where there's a proper obligation to share that kind of information in the interests of people taking adequate preparation,'' Howard said.
The $64 million Mars probe carried experiments on behalf of Russia and 21 other countries that were intended to study the surface, atmosphere and magnetic fields of the planet.
Failure of the mission represents a high-visibility setback for Russian space efforts, which have been badly undercut by a paucity of government funds.
The Russians' four-stage Proton booster lifted off as scheduled near midnight Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan.
The first three stages fired properly, according to the space tracking center in Evpatoriya, Ukraine. The problems arose when a booster rocket on the fourth stage failed to ignite, Russia's Interfax news agency said, quoting one of the mission directors, Vladimir Molodtsov.
Spacecraft have fallen to Earth since soon after the space age began with the 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 - the first artificial satellite - but have always missed populated areas.
On Jan. 24, 1978, the crippled Russian satellite Cosmos 954 re-entered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering debris over a wide area of remote northwest Canada. Later that year, two French farmers were narrowly missed by a 44-pound metal lump that landed in a potato field after a Russian rocket re-entered the atmosphere.
In July 1979, the 75-ton U.S. space station Skylab fell in red-hot fragments across western Australia.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP The rocket carrying Russia's spacecraft lifted offby CNBSaturday but failed to break out of the Earth's atmosphere. color