Russian spacecraft ready to fly to ISS after launch failure

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A Russian Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a Soyuz MS-11 manned spacecraft has been placed on a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, TASS news agency reported Saturday.

The spacecraft is scheduled to blast off for the International Space Station (ISS) at 14:31 Moscow time (1131 GMT) on December 3 and dock with the ISS at 20:36 Moscow time (1736 GMT) the same day, TASS said.

This will be the first manned mission since the launch failure of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft on October 11 due to a carrier rocket malfunction.

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague were onboard and made a safe emergency landing in Kazakhstan.

An investigation commission concluded that the accident was caused by the irregular work of a sensor, which was supposed to signal the safe separation of the first and second stages of the carrier rocket.

As a result, one component of the first stage failed to move to a safe distance and hit the fuel tank of the second stage, which led to the rupture of the tank and the destruction of the second stage.

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft is currently the only vehicle for spaceflights between the ISS and Earth.

(Cover: The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft carrying the crew of astronaut Nick Hague of the U.S. and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia blasts off to the International Space Station from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan October 11, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency