Kerbal-esque Real life Rocket fails.

[gooddog15]

Given the distance between any of the pads and Tyrtuyam itself, it's not exactly likely. It's never happened so far after a total of about 3,000 launches.

In the US, it used to be a lot more likely; there were trailer parks within the KSC EDIT: Vandenburg boundary, quite close to the pads. The closest they got to killing somebody was probably this;

http://www.thespacereview.com/archive/2088a.jpg

trailer was occupied, but fortunately not by anybody standing in the middle.

looks like a interstage of titan rocket fell on it

[kmMango]

Amazed they launched the Proton so close to population centre, here is video of same launch from someones apartment shock waves break the window. imagine how many windows were blown out.

Imagine the damage from the N1 explosion that leveled its launchpad.

In one of the first Proton launches, the rocket detonated, but the upper stage fuel didn't ignite in the blast, and rained down on the Launch Control building. The fuel, UDMH, is highly toxic, so the controllers were stuck there for a few hours until a HAZMAT team reached them.

[ZooNamedGames]

Imagine the damage from the N1 explosion that leveled its launchpad.

In one of the first Proton launches, the rocket detonated, but the upper stage fuel didn't ignite in the blast, and rained down on the Launch Control building. The fuel, UDMH, is highly toxic, so the controllers were stuck there for a few hours until a HAZMAT team reached them.

Jeesh- that's a nightmare buuut this is a risk you take by working at NASA/Russian Space Program... If something goes wrong your potentially going to get rained on... This is why we should give credit to the people at NASA on Memorial Day along with other veterans!

Also- there wouldn't be a population centre that close to a N1 launch because if there was one- it be gone . It would be FLAT.

[hugix]

Antares crater

[GigaG]

This pair of Soviet failures, particularly the second one, but both are pretty weird:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_E-3_No.1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_E-3_No.2

looks like a interstage of titan rocket fell on it

I've read an article about this, I think it was a Thor-Agena or some other Thor derivative. I think it was a guidance issue, I think the blog that I read about it on was the Space Review or something like that.

Edited January 5, 2015 by GigaG

[Kryten]

The picture is also a link.

[1greywind]

My personal favorite: Delta II 9 SRB's fireworks:

[Nibb31]

One of the worst rocket explosions was the Intelsat 708 launch on a Long March 3B in 1996.

Officially, the disaster killed only two victims. However, videos of the aftermath taken by westerners after the crash show that the base's residential area and a nearby village, less than 2km from the launch site, were devastated by the explosion. Many people believe that the death toll was much higher than any other rocket disaster.

[shynung]

Don't tell me they installed their sensors upside down too.

[kmMango]

My personal favorite: Delta II 9 SRB's fireworks:

"We have just experienced an anomaly"

YA THINK?!!!

[ZooNamedGames]

"We have just experienced an anomaly"

YA THINK?!!!

Mission Control has a bad habit of denying the obvious... they see the rocket EXPLODE and their worried about the fact they've lost the downlink to the spacecraft! Ugh!