All upcoming launches of Soyuz carrier rockets, including from the Vostochny, the Plesetsk and the Kourou launch sites, may be postponed following the Soyuz spacecraft incident on Thursday, a Russian space industry source told Sputnik.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2018) All upcoming launches of Soyuz carrier rockets, including from the Vostochny, the Plesetsk and the Kourou launch sites, may be postponed following the Soyuz spacecraft incident on Thursday, a Russian space industry source told Sputnik.
Earlier in the day, an accident occurred during the liftoff of a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle carrying the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with two new members of the International Space Station crew on board, a Russian cosmonaut and a US astronaut. The crew has safely returned to Earth in a jettisoned escape capsule.
"All Soyuz-family carrier rockets use the same systems for separation of the first stage from the second [and that is one of the most probable causes of the accident, according to the source]. Accordingly, all launches are in question," the source said.
Until the end of the year, it was planned to conduct three Soyuz launches from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, two launches from Kourou in French Guiana, one from Vostochny and at least one more - from Plesetsk.
