Student experiments destroyed in rocket

The Russian Soyuz launcher that exploded on Tuesday killing one person and injuring another eight contained experiments by two groups of British students. The rocket, which carried an unmanned Foton M-1 research satellite, exploded 29 seconds after lift-off.

On board were 44 European Space Agency experiments, including the Floatin' Protein experiment, by two York University students, on the effects of gravity on crystal lattice structure and purity. Another experiment, Winograd, by three Edinburgh University undergraduates, which looked at how microgravity impacts on microbial communities, was also on the rocket.