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SHEPHERD SUES OVER NEAR MISS

A shepherd has filed a claim for compensation against the Russian space agency after a 10-foot-long chunk of metal from a space rocket allegedly fell into his yard, just missing his outdoor lavatory.

Boris Urmatov is asking for 1 million roubles (£21,200) from the Roskosmos agency to compensate him for the stress he suffered.

The partially sighted Mr Urmatov lives in Kyrlyk, a small village that lies underneath the flight path of rockets taking off from the Baikonur launchpad Russia leases in nearby Kazakhstan.

"Something woke him up in the night, like something exploded. Since he's visually handicapped he didn't notice the fallen rocket parts," said his sister Marina by telephone from the village, which is more than 2,000 miles east of Moscow in Russia's Altai region.

"In the morning in front of the shepherd hut he saw this enormous metal casing, as smooth as an egg," she added. "It nearly crushed the outhouse."

Rocket pieces often rain down on the area, said Anatoly Kazakov, a residents in the neighbouring village of Ust-Kan. "Sometimes it's smooth metal casings, sometimes it's bolts. I remember something like an engine fell once."

Parts of the surrounding countryside are designated special zones where people may not go during the launches.

Roskosmos said it warned residents when a launch was scheduled, and in a history stretching back over 50 years and 400 rockets, only a few space-bound rocket parts have fallen outside the designated areas.

"Technologically speaking, these parts are supposed to fall off during a launch. They fly, they fall, they fly, they fall. It's how they work," said Alexander Vorobyov, a spokesman for Roskosmos.

The agency regularly sends out an investigation team to check on reports of damage from rocket parts, but it could only pay compensation if a court rules for damages.

"If a court determines that, yes, those are rocket parts, they fell on his land, then for sure he will be compensated. No question about it," Mr Vorobyov said. "We live in a civilized, law-abiding country."

According to Izvestia newspaper, Roskosmos had only once paid out compensation over rocket debris to a private individual - 10,000 roubles in 2001 - when a piece fell on his yard as he was outside chopping wood.

"What is abnormal is when somebody gets greedy, and it turns out the parts did not fall on his land, but that they were dragged there. Those moments are not good," Mr Vorobyov said.

"But those are individual instances. We in no way refuse to pay out compensation. It just has to go through the court system."

(Telegraph)