Russian launchpad damages following joint launch with US

Russia’s space launch site in Kazakhstan was damaged on Thursday after a Soyuz mission took off with Russian cosmonauts and US astronauts onboard, Moscow’s space agency Roscosmos said.

Russia’s space programme, which for decades has been a source of national pride, has been suffering for years from a chronic lack of funding and corruption scandals.“Damage to a number of elements of the launch pad was identified,” Roscosmos said on social media, after inspecting the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan – Russia’s only launch site for manned missions.

While the agency was assessing the condition of the launch pad, it said “all necessary spare parts for repair are available and the damage will be eliminated in the near future”.

According to Russian space bloggers, Roscosmos will be unable to conduct space launches for some time due to the accident, alleging that the site in Kazakhstan was seriously damaged.

The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft mission, carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 4:27 am (0927 GMT) on Thursday.

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The spacecraft later on Thursday successfully docked to the International Space Station, according to Roscosmos.

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As part of the slew of sanctions imposed on Russia since its assault in 2022, many Western countries ceased partnerships with Roscosmos.