Nov 17 1996
From The Space Library
A Russian nuclear-powered Mars probe crashed into the South Pacific Ocean, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand. The U.S. Space Command, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, monitored the descent of the disabled craft, but was unsure exactly when and where the probe had hit the ocean. Russian space scientists assured NASA that no danger of nuclear contamination existed. A handful of experts, however, cautioned that in an extremely unlikely, worst-case scenario, the impact could result in a small but lethal plutonium cloud. President Clinton, vacationing in Australia at the time, offered the services of U.S. teams trained to locate and recover stray nuclear materials. Russian officials believed that the probe, named Mars-96, had failed to reach orbit because of a malfunction during the fourth stage of the Proton-K rocket's ascent. Mars-96 carried plutonium pellets the size of eraser heads, designed to withstand the pressures of entering Mars's atmosphere. The probe's failure was a setback for the international effort to explore Mars, as well as for the Russian space program. Donna L. Shirley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the chief of the U.S. Mars effort, called the failure a "terrible, terrible tragedy" for researchers. Some people speculated that the crash would prompt a rebirth of protests against using nuclear materials in spacecraft.
NASA officials confirmed that tense negotiations with Russia over the composition of the first crew to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) had resulted in Russia's withdrawing one of its most senior and well-trained cosmonauts from consideration. NASA had selected U.S. astronaut William M. Shepherd to lead the 1998 mission and veteran space traveler Anatoly Y. Solovyev to accompany Shepherd. Each country strongly insisted that its own astronaut lead the international venture. In a letter to Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Russian space officials stated, "Despite the Russian efforts to make experienced cosmonaut Solovyev the crew commander, the American side is [pre]emptorily insisting on the candidacy of American astronaut Shepherd." Because the United States had insisted that Shepherd command the mission, Russian officials threatened that Russian Space Agency cosmonauts would not cooperate, claiming, "experienced Russian crew commanders doubt the expediency of their participation." The standoff highlighted the diplomatic difficulty of holding together the international coalition necessary to construct the ISS.
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