WEEKLY GROSS-OUT: Rocket explosions

Just like the Challenger 27 years before it, an unmanned Russian rocket veered off course and exploded in a fireball today, seconds after liftoff from a launch pad in Kazakhstan. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Proton-M rocket was carrying three satellites for Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System, (also known as Glonass or Globalnaya navigatsionnaya sputnikovaya sistema), reported the RIA Novosti news agency. But what is this Glonass toy's use, I hear you ask? Glonass is the Russian equivalent to the United States' Global Positioning System, or GPS. It both complements and provides an alternative to the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the only alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision. But why not just stick with regular GPS? If they'd done that, then that would be one less project to send stuff up in the air for, one less source of space junk, and one less reason to put rockets at risk of exploding. It's just not worth it.