Russian Rocket Exploding Over Kazakhstan

At 0238 GMT at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in Central Asia a Russian Proton Rocket exploded a few minutes after take-off.  As seen in the video the rocket takes off with some movement in the pitch and roll directions making it look like it is wobbling.  The rocket soon changes course and starts to head towards the ground. 

The rocket was carrying 3 satellites for Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System: Glonass.  Glonass is the Russian version of the United States' Global Positioning System, or GPS.

Russian space officials have blamed the failures on manufacturing flaws and engineering mistakes.

This is not good news for the Russian Space effort, but it is not terribly bad for NASA.  NASA astronauts and supplies go up on a different type of Russian rocket called the Soyuz.

 The Soyuz was developed by S.P Korolev Rockt and Space Corporation Energia, originally known as OKB-1,Special Design Bureau number 1 of R&D Institute number 88 which can trace its roots back to designing Sputnik.  The Soyuz is manufactured by TsSKB-Progress (Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center) in Samara, Russia.

The Proton is manufactured at Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow, Russia.

These two rockets are built by different teams at different centers.  There is not much to worry about, it is like saying it is unsafe to drive a Ford F-150 because a Dodge Ram 2500 crashed. 

But still this is worrisome anytime something as powerful as a rocket crashes, and this may signal a weakness in Russian manufacturing and prove a wake up call that an American launch system needs to be in place to keep our people safe and supplied.