May 4 1988
From The Space Library
A series of powerful explosions destroyed the Pacific Engineering & Production Company oxidizer plant near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing two plant employees and injuring over 350 people. The plant was a major supplier of the ammonium perchlorate oxidizer used aboard the Space Shuttle's solid rocket motors and other military and civilian boosters. The explosions produced flames that shot 100 feet into the at and created a 400 foot-wide crater at the facility site. Seismographs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 200 miles away in Pasadena, California, detected two of the blasts registered at 3.0 and 3.5 on the Richter scale. The cause of the explosions was investigated.
The destruction of the oxidizer plant raised concerns among NASA and con-tractor Morton Thiokol over the availability of solid fuel oxidizer beyond the next four Space Shuttle flights. A prolonged interruption of Pacific Engineering's production activities would also threaten the military's missile production schedule. (UPI, May 5/88; AP, May 5/88; NY Times, May 5/88; W Post, May 5/88; WSJ, May 5/88; USA Today, May 5/88; W Times, May 5/88; B Sun, May 5/88)
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