An unmanned Japanese test rocket used as a model for a future space shuttle crashed in a swamp in northern Sweden earlier this week, the head of the Swedish Space Corporation said on Wednesday.The four-meter (13-foot) built-to-scale model was lifted by a stratospheric balloon to a height of 31 kilometers (20 miles) at the European Space Range Esrange in Kiruna in northern Sweden on Tuesday.
The model was then released to accelerate in free fall up to transonic speed. The model flew for several minutes, but parachutes that were supposed to open to soften the model's landing never unfolded.
"The test was supposed to end with a parachute slowing the fall before it landed softly in a swamp. Apparently the parachute never opened and there was a belly landing instead," Claes-Goeran Borg of the Swedish Space Corporation told news agency TT.
The crash-landing occurred about a kilometer from the planned landing site, well within Esrange territory and far from any residential areas, Borg stressed.
The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), whose researchers had planned to carry out three tests at Esrange, said meanwhile on its website that "the flight went smoothly, and scheduled flight data acquisition was successfully performed."
"The condition of the vehicle is currently under examination," it said.
According to Borg, the Japanese team would be unable to complete the two remaining tests due to the damages suffered to the prototype.
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Nov 02, 2006
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