The Risk Report
Volume 4 Number 1 (January-February 1998)
The first launch of Brazil's Veiculo Lancador de Satelites (VLS) space launcher ended in failure on November 2, 1997, when the launcher was destroyed by command 65 seconds into the flight.
According to reports of the launch, the rocket was off course and tilting to one side because one of the four solid propellant rocket motors failed to ignite.
The VLS was at an altitude of over 3,000 meters and about 2,000 meters downrange from its Alcantara Launch Site when it was destroyed. Debris, including Brazil's SCD-2 150-kilogram environmental data collection satellite which was onboard, fell into the Atlantic Ocean. According to a Brazilian space official, the only good news to come from the launch was that the on-board guidance system of the VLS apparently performed as designed and actually corrected the rocket's errant flight path.
The VLS is built by the Aerospace Technical Center (Centro Tecnico Aerospacial) (CTA), a branch of the Ministry of Aeronautics. Despite the setback, Brazil plans to press ahead with plans to build three more VLS launchers, with the first launch tentatively scheduled before the end of 1998.