Japanese Test Space Shuttle Crashes in Sweden

Japanese Test Space Shuttle Crashes in Sweden

Reuters - 2 July, 2003

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030702_179.html


STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - An unmanned Japanese space shuttle prototype
crash landed during testing in northern Sweden on Wednesday, Swedish
space authorities said.

A stratospheric balloon hoisted the test shuttle, part of Japan's
program to develop its first reusable shuttle, to an altitude of 21.5
km and released it into free-fall. Everything went as planned until
the shuttle reached 1,200 meters.

The prototype should have landed using a system involving a parachute
and an airbag, but instead it came crashing down onto the testing
center in Kiruna, some 1,300 kilometers north of Stockholm, breaking
up.

"The recovery system did not work properly to give it a soft landing.
It has to be refurbished before it can fly again," said project leader
Mikael Viertotak at the Swedish Space Corporation.

"Of course it causes a delay in their experiment...and a delay usually
means extra costs," Viertotak told Reuters. "But I would not consider
this a major drawback."