Oops! Russia accidentally destroys its only working launch pad as astronauts lift off to ISS
Russia’s only functioning launch pad has been temporarily taken out of service after sustaining significant damage during the recent launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). That leaves the country unable to send humans into space for the first time in more than 60 years, experts say.
On Thanksgiving (November 27), the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft lifted off from Site 31/6 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan around 2:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EST). The rocket carried Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev alongside NASA astronaut Chris Williams, all of whom successfully arrived on the ISS, where they will remain for the next eight months, Live Science partner site. Space.com reported.
Russian officials did not reveal which parts of the launch pad were hit or how they were damaged, writing only that the damage was “being assessed” and would be “repaired shortly.”
However, Ars Technica reported that an anonymous eyewitness noticed that during the launch, an approximately 22-ton (20 metric ton) service platform used to access the rocket engines fell into the “flame trench” – the section below the launch pad where the rocket’s flaming plumes are vented. (If confirmed, it likely means the platform was not properly secured before launch.)
It is unclear how long it will take to repair Site 31/6 or whether another decommissioned platform could be installed to replace it. But until that happens, Russia has no way of launching astronauts.
“Indeed, from that day on, Russia lost the ability to launch humans into space, which had not happened since 1961,” he added. Vitaly Egorova Russian space journalist, wrote on Telegram, as reported CNN. “It will now be necessary to quickly repair this launch table or modernize another one.”
The Baikonur Cosmodrome was built in the late 1950s, when Russia was part of the Soviet Union and engaged in a space race with the United States that ultimately ended with the Apollo moon landings. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the site has been loaned to Russia by Kazakhstan for around $115 million a year.
Russia has two other active cosmodromes, Vostochny and Plesetsk, within its own borders. However, none of these sites can currently launch crewed Soyuz rockets.
Site 31/6, which has been used for more than 400 successful rocket launches, became the last operational launch pad at Baikonur in 2020, when Roscosmos removed the only other working platform, Site 1/5 (aka Gagarin’s Start). The decommissioned platform was used to launch Yuri Gagarin, the first human into space, in 1961, and parts of it could now be used to repair Site 31/6, according to Espace.com.
Russia sends astronauts to the ISS every six months, less frequently than in the past. This is partly due to the emergence of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets, but also because Russia is return to his involvement in the ISS project, which is expected to end by 2030.
The next crewed ISS mission is scheduled to lift off from Site 31/6 in July 2026, while an uncrewed refueling is scheduled to launch in less than three weeks, on December 20, according to Space news.
Whether or not Russia is ready for these launches will be “a concrete test of its resilience,” Jeff Manbera space policy expert who heads the space stations division of private aerospace company Voyager Technologies, told Ars Technica. “We’re going to find out how important the ISS is to the leadership there.”
Russia is also expected to launch missions from Site 31/6 that will help build the new Russian orbital gas stationconstruction of which is currently scheduled to begin in 2027, Egorov wrote.
Once the ISS is decommissioned, Russian cosmonauts are also expected to be sent to China’s Tiangong space station, as the two countries strengthen ties to achieve their common goal of build a base on the Moon by 2035. (It is unclear from which country these astronauts will launch.)
China has also experienced its own spacecraft fiasco in recent weeks. At the beginning of November, a Suspected space debris collision hit a return capsule attached to Tiangong, stranding three astronauts in space. The trio was later returned to Earth aboard another capsule, which temporarily abandoned three other astronauts before the launch of an unmanned “lifeboat” on November 24.
