Post #4989

Russia Faces Space Mission Crisis After Severe Soyuz Launch Pad Accident On November 27th, Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome experienced a severe accident that has suspended Russia's ability to launch payloads and crews to space. Shortly after the Soyuz-MS28 mission launched at 09:27:57 UTC (4:27:57 am EST; 1:27:57 am PST) from Site 31/6 at the launch center, drone footage showed that the 8U216 mobile maintenance cabin was lying upside down in the flame trench. Fortunately, the launch was successful and the crew it carried - cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams - arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS) a few hours later. Nevertheless, the collapse of this maintenance cabin means Russia's only launch site capable of launching missions to the ISS is out of service. While other launch facilities exist in Russia, such as the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near Archangel (northern Russia), the Vostochny Cosmodrome in far-eastern Russia, or Gagarin's Start at Baikonur, they are either incapable of reaching the ISS, unable to fulfill crew-launch capability, or unable to conduct launches at all. As a result, Russia is temporarily unable to launch either crews or payloads using Soyuz and Progress spacecraft (respectively) to the ISS for the time being. Source:ScienceAlert @EverythingScience