MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian space rocket industry source has blamed a faulty second stage for Friday's crash of a Zenit launch vehicle, which fell back into the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff as part of the Sea Launch program.
"A broadcast of the launch continued for more than two minutes at the Mission Control Center, which coordinated all pre-launch and launch operations. An announcement was made that the first stage separated," the source said.
The accident could have happened approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the flight, when the second stage was starting to function, he said.