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Three become six as new 'nauts arrive for a visit to the ISS
Russia's back in the crewed spaceflight game with a bang
By Richard Speed 4 Dec 2018 at 05:01
Russia returned to crewed spaceflight today, sending a fresh complement of crew to the International Space Station (ISS) following a successful launch of the venerable Soyuz-FG booster.
The lift off occurred at 11:31 UTC today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and was the first with crew since October’s attempt to get two new crew members to the ISS, which memorably ended with an abort that sent the crew capsule safely back to earth as things went wrong on the fiery end of the rocket.
There was no repeat of the incident, which saw one of the Soyuz’s strap-on boosters make contact with the vehicle and rupture a fuel tank. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, rapidly concluded that the problem was a sensor that got bent during assembly. Nothing to do with the design, no sir.
The Soyuz has been a very reliable rocket over the years, with an enviable success record. However, some high-profile failures caused by shoddy workmanship have raised doubts over the Russian space programme and October’s failure compounded those fears.
More:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/04/iss_crew_flight/
