Roscosmos
Complex 31/6, at the Baikonur cosmodrome, after the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 mission on November 27
Russia suffered a serious setback on November 27, after the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 mission, which transported astronauts to the International Space Station, caused severe damage to the country’s only platform capable of supporting manned rockets.
Space launches have become so routine today that they almost deserve as much media attention as the takeoff of a transatlantic commercial flight. But every now and then, something is wrong – and some of these failures can have serious consequences.
Launched on November 27th, the MS-28 it was a routine mission which he sent to the ISS, aboard a Soyuz capsule launched on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineers Sergei Mikaev, from Roscosmos, and Christopher Williams, from NASA.
The launch took place almost boringly routine the Soyuz spacecraft left for its destination and its passengers on the ISS. All It went well — except for the launch pad.
Built in the early 1960s, the Complex 31/6at the Baikonur cosmodrome, includes a essential equipment to prepare rockets for the launch, explains .
This is the Maintenance Cabin 8U216a mobile metal platform that allows technicians to access, before takeoff, the lower section of the rocket, including the engines on the first and second floors.
When your role is finished, the cabin is lowered into the pit gas diversion and pushed laterally into a sort of protected niche, closed by a metal screen. Normally, with the cabin safely stowed, the rocket’s exhaust passes alongside without causing damage.
But in the latest release, or the cabin has come loose from its fixings or never stayed properly locked. Result: a boost of about 4.4 tons m/s from Soyuz tore off the 144 ton cabin and threw it into the exhaust pit, 20 m below, where it remained. catastrophically destroyed.
That would be bad enough, but the 31/6 Complex is the only platform Russian capable of supporting manned launch missions to the ISS and, without the cabin, it is out of service. It is not clear for how long.
Roscosmos on its Telegram channel that “all necessary spare components are available for repair and the damages will be repaired soon”. Other sources, however, point to the possibility that the works will take longer up to two years to complete.
The incident is ironic because it reverses the situation of 2011when the American Space Shuttle was removed from service, leaving Russian Soyuz capsules as the only means of reaching the ISS — until SpaceX’s Crew Dragon came into operation.
Now, it is Russia that is left out, while the United States now holds, in practice, the monopoly on manned flights to the station.
Fortunately, so far, spaceflight has escaped the diplomatic tensions between the US and Russia, and, more war, less war, NASA and Roscosmos. continue to cooperateensuring the sending of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS — and your return.
