Smoke rose from a crater littered with twisted metal at Brazil's space center last night, a day after a rocket explosion killed 21 people in the country's latest attempt to launch Latin America's first satellite.
Also, an air force spokesman said there were no injuries from the blast, contradicting earlier reports by Brazil's defense ministry that 20 people were wounded. All those who were near the rocket when it exploded were killed.
"Initial reports that there were injured were wrong, they came about through the confusion of the moment," said air force spokesman Maj. Gustavo Kruger.
Kruger said the final death toll was reached after a roll call was conducted after the accident.
"There are no more victims to be found," he said.
The identification process was complicated by the fact that the bodies were badly charred, he said. Dental records and DNA tests will be used to identify the remains.
The 66-foot-high, $6 million VLS-1 VO3 rocket was three days from its scheduled liftoff when it blew up on its launch pad, leaving South America's largest country mourning the victims and struggling to understand what went wrong.
Friday's blast at the seaside Alcantara Launch Center in northeastern Brazil, near Sao Luis, killed civilian engineers and technicians and destroyed two research satellites, dealing a serious blow to Brazil's nascent space program.