Baikonur is tired

The installation complex of the cosmodrome could collapse from old age

A government commission headed by Minister of Industry, Science and Technology Ilya Klebanov arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome yesterday to investigate an emergency at one of the installation and testing complexes, where the roof collapsed on Sunday. According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, all eight workers who were in the complex at the time of the accident died, although by yesterday evening rescuers managed to remove the bodies of only six of them from under the multi-meter rubble. As representatives of Rosaviakosmos said yesterday, in general, the emergency will not affect the work of the entire cosmodrome and “definitely will not affect” the implementation of Russian space programs. As it turned out, the ill-fated assembly and testing complex (MTC), which is a huge hangar 800 meters long and 80 meters high, had been mothballed for a long time. It contained the hull of the Buran reusable spacecraft and parts of the Energia launch vehicle, which had not been used for ten years.

According to Rosaviakosmos, the accident occurred around 11.20 am, when a team of eight people was working on the roof of the MIK, located on the 112th site. The workers - seven Kazakh citizens and one Belarusian - had to repair and seal leaks in the roof of the hangar, which consists of five reinforced concrete spans, each more than 150 meters long. What provoked the accident - the actions of the repairmen or something else - is not yet known for certain, but it has been established that first one of the spans collapsed and dragged two more along the chain. Emergency services at the cosmodrome immediately began clearing out the rubble, but the work proceeded with great difficulty. The hangar was littered with a multi-meter layer of twisted metal and concrete, and huge pieces of roofing continued to fall from above from time to time.

Yesterday, rescue work had to be stopped altogether for the entire first half of the day due to a squally wind. However, rescuers immediately stated that the workers had no chance of surviving a fall from an 80-meter height.

By Monday evening, emergency workers managed to clear part of the hangar and find the bodies of six dead. In addition, they almost completely freed the Buran hull from the rubble, which, as it turned out, was almost undamaged. It is planned to transport it to another hangar in the coming days. Also, according to the preliminary inspection, parts of the Energia were not badly damaged, including its three fuel tanks (each with a capacity of more than 150 tons). In general, after completion of emergency work, as already decided, the MIC will be dismantled.

Regarding the causes of the emergency, representatives of Rosaviakosmos spoke very cautiously yesterday, leaving the right to make final conclusions to the experts accompanying Mr. Klebanov. So far they have only made assumptions. According to one of them, the accident could have been triggered by depressurization of one of Energia’s fuel tanks (if, for example, something fell onto it from the roof due to repair work). The depressurization caused the “swaying” of the walls of the MIK. However, by evening experts rejected this version. According to other assumptions, more likely, the roof could not withstand the “wind load” or simply became so dilapidated that it fell under the weight of the workers. This hangar was erected back in the 60s by military builders, and experts do not rule out that the main reason for the collapse was the advanced age of the building, coupled with possible violations of technology during its construction. The head of Rosaviakosmos, Yuri Koptev, who also flew to the cosmodrome, yesterday ordered all installation and testing complexes and other facilities at Baikonur to be checked for reliability in the near future.

Alexander RASKIN