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Space ISS Science

Russian Launch Site Mishap Shows Perilous State of Storied Space Program (nytimes.com) 21

Posted by BeauHD from the out-of-commission dept.
A Soyuz launch at Baikonur damaged Russia's only launchpad capable of sending astronauts and crucial propellant to the ISS. "The rocket itself headed to space without incident, taking three astronauts -- Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of Russia and Chris Williams of NASA -- to the space station," reports the New York Times. "But the force of the rocket's exhaust shoved a service platform used for prelaunch preparations out of its protective shelter. The platform fell into the flame trench below." From the report: Photos and videos of the launch site the next day showed the platform out of place and mangled. "It's heavily damaged," said Anatoly Zak, who publishes RussianSpaceWeb.com, a close tracker of Russia's space activities, "and so probably it will have to be rebuilt. Maybe some of the hardware can be reused. But it fell down, and it's destroyed."

This is the latest embarrassment for the once-proud Russian space program, which the United States relied on from 2011 to 2020 to get NASA astronauts to orbit. The incident also raises questions about the future of the International Space Station if the launchpad cannot be quickly repaired. In a statement issued on Friday, Roscosmos, the state corporation in charge of the Russian space program, confirmed unspecified "damage" at the launchpad. "All necessary parts needed for repairs are at our disposal, and the damage will be dealt with in the near future," it said.
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Russian Launch Site Mishap Shows Perilous State of Storied Space Program More

Russian Launch Site Mishap Shows Perilous State of Storied Space Program

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  • This happened yesterday as well [slashdot.org], you'd think they would learn.

  • Read through the comments in that telegram post, the amount of denial is staggering, the amount of cheerful propaganda is even greater, but there were some worried notes gleaming through all that cheerleading, where someone hoped they would still have a job later on. Someone thinks that the things may not turn out so well, they think that out of all of the options they may end up with the option I listed as number one here https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

    what I can tell you from the very tone of this chee

  • Please stop this crap... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @03:36AM (#65829631)

    This is the latest embarrassment for the once-proud Russian space program

    There was no "once-proud Russian space program". The so-called "Russian space program" is basically a corruption scheme born on the leftovers of the once-proud Soviet space program, which was destroyed along with the Soviet Union.

    Most of it was funded by cooperation with ESA and NASA, which is now gone, something that nicely explains why the program "deteriorated" so "unexpectedly" and "rapidly".

    • Who would ever have thought this was unexpected when they stopped getting money from NASA and the ESA?

  • I'm still flabbergasted of the claim that the original pad that Gagarin launched from is supposedly being set aside as a museum. That simply doesn't make economic sense. First reason, pads are not free to build. They're quite expensive. Second, the facility is not in Russia, so its utility as a museum for Russian propaganda purposes is questionable.

    It would make a lot more sense if they simply chose to do upkeep on only one pad, and for whatever reasoning they chose the pad with the now-broken equipment

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