A Soyuz spacecraft successfully delivered two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station on Thursday, even as damage was reported at the launch facility in Kazakhstan following liftoff, Deutsche Welle reported.
Roscosmos confirmed that several components of the launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome were damaged during the morning launch. The agency said repair work would begin immediately and expressed confidence that operations could resume quickly. However, some Russian space analysts cautioned that restoring the site could take longer than officials anticipate.
According to Vitaly Egorov, a Russian space enthusiast who runs «Zelenyikot i Kosmos,» a popular Telegram channel dedicated to spaceflight, the damaged launch complex has been in continuous use since 1961 and, since 2018, has served as Russia’s sole operational site for crewed missions to the International Space Station. He warned that the incident effectively leaves Russia without an immediate capability to send astronauts into orbit — something that has formed a core part of its space program for more than six decades. Egorov said the damaged facility will now require urgent repairs, or authorities may be forced to restore the historic Gagarin Launch Pad, which had previously been transferred to Kazakhstan and designated as a national space museum.
Despite the incident on the ground, the spacecraft completed its journey without complications. The crew — Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev, along with Chris Williams of NASA — is scheduled to spend approximately eight months aboard the orbital outpost.
They join an international team already on board, including Americans Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.
Kazakhstan’s Baikonur is the only operating space launch complex Russia can use for crewed missions. Moreover, continued cooperation in space is one of the few areas where Russia and the U.S. still work together after bilateral relations deteriorated following Russia’s war in Ukraine.
