Russia to launch Soyuz rocket again, just days after catastrophic failed mission
Initial tests will carry a military satellite to space
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Your support makes all the difference.Russia will launch its Soyuz rocket again, just days after a catastrophic failure that forced the astronauts on board into a crashing landing.
The next mission will not include any people and instead carry a military satellite into space, according to the Interfax news agency, which cited a source in the space agency.
But engineers will hope that the test mission is successful enough to allow crewed missions to re-commence, getting the Russian space agency back on track and minimising disruption to the International Space Station and other projects.
Rocket launches have been suspended since Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague had to abort their mission and perform an emergency landing after the Soyuz that was supposed to carry them to the International Space Station failed. Since that spectacular failure last week, investigations have suggested that there may have been a problem with the booster that is intended to carry them up to space.
The suspension has left the world without any way of getting people into space or up to the International Space Station. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, is the only organisation with the ability to launch crewed missions, since the US does not have the capability to carry its astronauts into space on its own.
That has left some fearing that the International Space Station could be without a crew when the current team of three come back down to Earth.
The new Soyuz launch will take place between 24 and 26 October, Interfax reported. If it is successful then crewed launches are expected to resume soon after.
Nasa astronaut Nick Hague has said he has full confidence in the rocket that failed to carry him up into space, and the two are expected to return to the International Space Station using the same hardware when launches begin again.
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