This site may earn chapter commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of utilize.

The International Space Station is currently inaccessible after the recent Soyuz launch arrest. We're nonetheless looking at the ameliorate part of a yr before SpaceX or Boeing have whatever promise of a manned launch, so investigators are anxious to figure out what happened during concluding calendar week's incident. According to an initial study from the Russian infinite agency, the arraign lies with one of the rocket'south four first stage boosters.

On Oct. 11, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague were forced to arrest their trip to the International Space Station after several minutes in the air. The pair returned to Globe safely following a ballistic reentry, which can include thou-forces twice what they would experience during launch. The electric current ISS crew can receive supplies via unmanned vehicles, and there'due south a Soyuz descent module docked for emergency render trips. However, no new crew members tin can reach the station until the cause of last week'south incident is addressed.

According to Roscosmos caput of human spaceflight Sergei Krikalev, the investigation has focused on a possible collision betwixt function of the first phase and the second (or cadre) stage. The Soyuz MS-series has a reputation equally a reliable vehicle in part thanks to its modular blueprint. At launch, the four first stage boosters ignite, each one with 4 kerosene-fueled RD-107A engines. These four boosters are arranged radially around the main/second stage of the vehicle. When the first stage boosters finish their job, they jettison simultaneously. Nevertheless, one of those boosters might non have come up off cleanly.

The Soyuz rocket launching terminal week with its first stage boosters firing.

The Soyuz first stage boosters all have propellant systems to push them clear of the master stage, but that may take failed. The problematic booster likely collided with the body of the rocket every bit it ejected two minutes afterward launch, causing damage and triggering an automated abort.

Russian authorities are all the same conducting an investigation, and a full report volition come up out around October. xx. Roscosmos says it's speeding up construction of another Soyuz so it tin can resume launches quickly if information technology gets the green low-cal. NASA is conducting its own investigation of the incident, merely it hasn't made any statements withal. The United states of america agency hopes to finish using Soyuz rockets to reach the ISS in the adjacent twelvemonth, but the date for SpaceX and Boeing to begin carrying passengers has been pushed back several times.

Now read: NASA extends Russian Soyuz contract for $490 one thousand thousand, says it'southward Congress's fault, NASA secures up to 5 more seats on Russian Soyuz missions, and NASA Agrees to Permit Astronauts Aboard SpaceX Rocket During Fueling