Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Defense Ministry says two officers died and three servicemen were hospitalized after cleaning rocket fuel tanks at a military launchpad.
The ministry said Tuesday that the officers appeared to have violated safety rules during the regular cleaning of the fuel tanks at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia.
The three servicemen were hospitalized after breathing toxic nitrogen vapors on Saturday and their lives were not in danger, the ministry said in a statement. It did not specify how the officers died.
The Plesetsk Cosmodrome is the only launchpad on Russian territory and is used mainly for sending up military satellites. Russia uses the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which it leases from Kazakhstan, for all manned space launches.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
