Unix Timestamp: 1061510400
Friday, August 22. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

A Brazilian Space Agency VLS-1 space rocket explodes on its launch-pad at Alcântara space base, killing at least 21 people. It is thought that one of the rocket's four motors caught fire the subsequent explosion destroyed the rocket, its cargo of two satellites, and the launch-pad, as well as the deaths of many of Brazil's space-specialists, causing an estimated US$ worth of damage. This ends Brazil's third attempt since 1997 at becoming a space power. //www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtmljsessionid=LD3YB2PO413JUCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNewsstoryID=3324417//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3175131.stm

Natural disaster: Wildfire forces around 10,000 people from their homes in British Columbia. This is Western Canada's worst fire season in decades. //story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=585ncid=585e=2u=/nm/20030822/sc_nm/environment_fires_canada_dc

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, during Delta II.

Two bomb blasts in Mumbai, India, kill 52.

A rocket explosion kills 21 at the Brazilian rocket complex in Alcântara, Brazil, due to the premature ignition of a solid rocket booster.