- CONTACT US
- AFS
- Business
- Bussiness
- Car
- Career
- Celebrity
- Digital Products
- Education
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- Film
- Food
- Fun
- Games
- General Health
- Health
- Health Awareness
- Healthy
- Healthy Lifestyle
- History Facts
- Household Appliances
- Internet
- Investment
- Law
- Lifestyle
- Loans&Mortgages
- Luxury Life Style
- movie
- Music
- Nature
- News
- Opinion
- Pet
- Plant
- Politics
- Recommends
- Science
- Self-care
- services
- Smart Phone
- Sports
- Style
- Technology
- tire
- Travel
- US
- World

A launch pad at Russia’s main space complex was damaged during Thursday’s launch of a mission carrying two Russians and an American to the International Space Station, Moscow’s space agency announced.
The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft successfully docked with the space station and the three crew members had boarded, Roscosmos said.
But a post-launch inspection at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan revealed “damage to several elements of the launch pad,” according to a statement from Roscosmos, which still uses the space facility in its former Soviet neighbor.
“An assessment of the condition of the launch complex is currently underway,” it said, adding that all parts needed to repair the pad are available.
“The damage will be repaired in the near future.”
The launch pad contains support systems for the rocket and a structure that allows cosmonauts to access their capsule as it sits atop a Soyuz rocket.
Launch pads must be capable of withstanding extreme heat, air pressure and vibrations as a rocket takes flight.
Russian analysts said repairs to the launch pad could take a week or longer. And any lengthy delay could leave Russia unable to launch missions to the space station, they said.
“In the worst case this could seriously affect the rotation of crewed missions and cargo flights to the ISS,” analyst and blogger Georgy Trishkin wrote on Telegram.
Typically, ISS crew are launched roughly every six months from Baikonur.
“This is the only launch pad Roscosmos uses for the ISS program, and in the future it was supposed to be used for launches to the Russian Orbital Station,” commentator Vitaliy Egorov wrote on Telegram.
“In effect from this day Russia has lost the ability to launch humans into space, something that has not happened since 1961. Now it will be necessary to quickly repair this launch table or modernize another one,” Egorov wrote.
Besides Russia’s Soyuz craft, NASA uses SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to take crew to the ISS.
The three men aboard the mission that lifted off Thursday join seven other crew already orbiting on the ISS.
Three are scheduled to return to Earth by December 8, according to NASA.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
LATEST POSTS
- 1
A Texas GOP congressman is retiring. Trump just endorsed his identical twin to replace him. - 2
Faulty glucose monitors linked to 7 deaths and more than 700 injuries, FDA warns - 3
CDC vaccine panel delays vote to stop recommending hepatitis B shot at birth - 4
Sentimental tree to shine at Arctic League annual broadcast - 5
Yasser Abu Shabab's killing raises questions about Israel's militia strategy in Gaza
Blue Origin launches New Glenn rocket on company's first NASA-scale science mission
Astonishing interstellar comet captured in new images by NASA Mars missions
Doggie diversity in size and shape began at least 11,000 years ago
Scientists find evidence that an asteroid contains tryptophan
Scientists solve the mystery of 'impossible' merger of 'forbidden' black holes
Kissing is an ‘evolutionary conundrum.’ Scientists just mapped its unexpected origins
Bronze Age "City of Seven Ravines" unearthed in central Asia after 3,500 years
Ancient eggshells shed new light on crocodiles that hunted prey from trees
Astronomer captures 2 meteors slamming into the moon (video)












