Aug 12 1998
From The Space Library
A U.S. Air Force Titan IV rocket, carrying a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office of the Pentagon, exploded 1 minute after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. More than 20 stories high and weighing nearly 2 million pounds (907,000 kilograms), the Lockheed Martin built Titan IV was the largest crewless rocket used in the United States. The rocket used solid-fuel boosters similar to those used to launch NASA's Space Shuttle. The explosion destroyed about US$1.3 billion worth of hardware, making it one of the worst American rocket-launch failures to date. The rocket was about 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) above the Atlantic when it exploded, and the ocean carried the debris and toxic substances away from land. This was the second time a Titan IV had exploded during launch; the first explosion occurred in 1993.
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