Proton crash site investigation complete, rocket debris being collected
BAIKONUR. July 11 (Interfax) - Debris of the Proton-M rocket, which crashed at the Baikonur Space Center on July 2, is being collected.
"Investigators have done their job at the crash site and rocket debris is being collected for storage. The cleanup may take several days," a Space Center representative told Interfax on Thursday.
Decontamination stage one is complete, he said. "More than 50 tons of a special solution was poured into the crater within two days," the source noted.
The entire area will be decontaminated with another 250 tons of the solution after the debris is removed. "This amount is sufficient for soaking the soil deeper than the spilled rocket fuel would have oozed," the source said.
A Proton-M rocket carrying three Glonass-M navigation satellites blasted off from the 81st launch site of Baikonur Space Center on July 2. It crashed near the launch site during the first minute of the flight and exploded.
Kazakh Space Agency Deputy Chairman Yerkin Shaimagambetov said on Wednesday that the maximum permissible concentrations of heptyl were exceeded multiple times in the center of the crater made by the crashed rocket.
Zhomart Aliyev from the Ecology Ministry said they would have to decontaminate more than 1.3 hectares of territory in Baikonur.