Russian Soyuz rocket failed due to assembly process component
Two more Soyuz rockets might have the same defect and additional checks are being introduced
Moscow — The abortive launch last month of a manned Soyuz mission to space was caused by a sensor damaged during the rocket’s assembly at the cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian investigators said on Thursday. A Russian cosmonaut and US astronaut were forced to abort their mission on October 11 after a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS) failed, sending them plunging back to Earth in an emergency landing. Presenting findings of an official inquiry into the accident, chief investigator Igor Skorobogatov said two more Soyuz rockets might have the same defect and that additional checks are being introduced into the rocket assembly process. The mishap occurred as the first and second stages of a Russian booster rocket separated about two minutes after lift-off from Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era cosmodrome of Baikonur. “The reason for the abnormal separation ... was due to a deformation of the stem of the contact separation sensor,” Skorobogatov told reporters. “It has been pr...
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