List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
Fatalities caused by rocket explosions
This list excludes deaths caused by military operations, either by deliberate detonations, or accidental during production - for example German V-2 rockets reportedly caused on average an estimated 6 deaths per operational rocket just during its production stages.

List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents

Section Title: Fatalities caused by rocket explosions
Table Section Text: This list excludes deaths caused by military operations, either by deliberate detonations, or accidental during production - for example German V-2 rockets reportedly caused on average an estimated 6 deaths per operational rocket just during its production stages.

Date	Place	Dead	Rocket	Description

1930-05-17	Berlin, Germany	1	Max Valier, "first casualty of the modern space age", killed by rocket engine explosion.

1931-02-02	Mount Redoria near Milan, Italy	1	A liquid fueled, 132-pound (60 kg) meteorological rocket, that was constructed by American physicist, Dr. Darwin Lyon, exploded during tests, killing a mechanic and injuring three others.

1933-10-10	Germany	3	Explosion in rocket manufacturing room of Reinhold Tiling

1934-07-16	Kummersdorf, Germany	3	A2	Research project under the supervision of Walter Dornberger killed Kurt Wahmke and two assistants as part of the Aggregat rocket development, during a fuel test of a premixed hydrogen peroxide/alcohol propellant when the fuel tank exploded.

1960-10-24	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR	78	R-16	The Nedelin catastrophe caused by ignition of second-stage engines on the pad.

1963-10-24	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR	7-8	R-9 Desna	On the same day as the Nedelin catastrophe, another catastrophe took place: due to the evaporation of fuel and a short circuit, a fire took the lives of 7 or 8 people.

1964-04-14	Cape Canaveral, US	3	Delta rocket	The third stage of a Delta rocket had just been joined to the Orbiting Solar Observatory satellite in the spin test facility building at Cape Kennedy.

1964-05-07	Braunlage, West Germany	3	Mail rocket	Mail rocket built by Gerhard Zucker exploded and debris hit crowd of spectators.

1966-12-14	Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR	1	Soyuz 7K-OK	Soyuz 7K-OK No.1: Second unmanned Soyuz test flight. Launch escape system fired 27 minutes after an aborted launch causing a fire and subsequent explosion when pad workers had already returned to the launch pad.

1973-06-26	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR	9	Kosmos-3M launch vehicle	Launch explosion of Kosmos-3M rocket

1980-03-18	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR	48	Vostok-2M launch vehicle	Explosion while fueling up a Vostok-2M rocket

1990-09-07	Edwards AFB, CA United States	1	Titan IV	A Titan IV launch vehicle solid rocket booster was being hoisted by a crane into a rocket test stand at Edwards AFB, California.

1991-08-09	Komaki, Aichi, Japan	1	H-II launch vehicle	Engineer Arihiro Kanaya, 23, was conducting a high pressure endurance test on a pipe used in the first stage rocket engine of the H-2 (H-II) launch vehicle when it exploded.

1993-02-27	Esrange, Sweden	1	Nike-Orion	Bror Thornéus, a technician from Sweden was killed when a sounding rocket ignited during testing of its ignition system at the European Sounding Rocket Range (Esrange), in northern Sweden.

1995-01-26	Xichang, China	6+	Long March rocket	Long March rocket veered off course after launch

1996-02-15	Xichang, China	6-100	Long March rocket	Intelsat 708 Satellite, a Long March rocket, veered off course immediately after launch, crashing in the nearby village 22 seconds later, destroying 80 houses.

2002-10-15	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia	1	Soyuz-U	A Soyuz-U exploded 29 seconds after launch, killing a soldier, Ivan Marchenko, and injuring 8 others. Fragments of the rocket started a forest fire nearby, and a Block D strap-on booster caused damage to the launchpad.

2003-08-22	Alcântara, Brazil	21	VLS-1	VLS-1 V03: Explosion of an unmanned rocket during launch preparations

2007-07-26	Mojave Spaceport, California	3	engine test for SpaceShipTwo	Explosion during a test of rocket systems by Scaled Composites during a nitrous oxide injector test

Sentence(s)

On 18 March 1980, a Vostok-2M exploded during fueling at Plesetsk and 48 people were killed.

final_sentence: On 18 March 1980, a Vostok-2M exploded during fueling at Plesetsk and 48 people were killed.