Most likely, cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and astronaut Tyler Haig will go to the ISS only in the spring. The reason was the interrupted flight on October 11 with an emergency landing. This was announced by the head of Roskomos Dmitry Rogozin.
It is important to note that Haig and Ovchinin were close to death when the Soyuz rocket unsuccessfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This is the first such accident in the history of space Russia in the post-Soviet period and a serious setback for the industry.
The unfortunate launch took place in the presence of NASA administrator Jim Brydenstein, who visited Russia and Baikonur this week. The event was not the most pleasant moment for Russia, which recently voiced plans to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars.
The Soviet Union rocket is now the only one in the world transporting astronauts to the ISS and back to Earth. An investigation into the incident was launched, so all launches had to be suspended. The astronauts avoided injuries and stayed on October 11 in a good mood.
Experts say that in recent years, the Russian space industry has been confronted with a series of setbacks, including the loss of cargo spacecraft and numerous satellites. Therefore, the failure of the rocket was only a matter of time.
Union Collapse
It is worth noting that the event caused sharp criticism in the Russian media. You can find flashy headlines, like “Rocket crashed, destroying the entire space industry”, “Impact on image”, etc. But the newspaper “Izvestia” stepped in, saying that the situation demonstrated a reliable rescue system developed back in 1986.
In the history of the Soviet space program there were two such unsuccessful events. In 1983, Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov miraculously experienced a fire during a launch in Kazakhstan. In 1975, Oleg Makarov and Vasily Lazarev performed a successful emergency landing in the Altai Mountains after problems with the booster.
NASA and ESA expressed confidence in the reliability of the Soviet Union missiles, stressing the importance of cooperation between the countries. However, it will not be superfluous to insure. The United States is actively focused on developing commercial launch systems, although problems with the Union have become a headache for NASA, because it forces us to interrupt important scientific missions in orbit.
