Russia identifies defect in rocket that crashed

A Russian commission has pinpointed a clogged fuel pipe as the reason a Soyuz rocket that crashed into a forest in Siberia last month, the New York Times reported.

But the panel offered no guidance on when this type of rocket would again be considered ready for manned missions.

While narrowing the cause of the accident to one part, the commission also raised broader and difficult-to-address concerns about quality control in the Russian factories that make parts for the country’s manned space program.

Confirming initial reports, the commission said the first and second stages fired as planned on Aug. 24. But the third stage shut down.

The doomed rocket was carrying supplies on a Progress unmanned cargo spaceship to the International Space Station, but it was similar to the model that used to ferry cosmonauts and astronauts into orbit.

The pipe that clogged was a small but integral part of the third-stage engine, according to a statement by the Russian Space Agency, which said its engineers had reached this conclusion by analyzing telemetry.

Despite a lengthy search with helicopters, the authorities have yet to find any debris in the dense pine forest where the rocket crashed.