Russia has a cosmic problem at hand. The country was left with a damaged launch pad after sending three cosmonauts to
the International Space Station (ISS) on November 27. Based in Kazakhstan, it is the only working launch pad Russia uses
to send humans into space. This means that, for the first time in more than 60 years, Roscosmos is unable to launch
cosmonauts, Live Science reported. The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan at around 2:30 pm local time. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, alongside NASA
astronaut Chris Williams, were on board the spacecraft. They reached the ISS successfully.
What Russia space agency said about the damage
However, after the launch, when Roscosmos inspected the launch pad, the engineers found significant damage after the
take-off. "The launch pad was inspected, as is done every time a rocket is launched. Damage to several launch pad
components was identified," Roscosmos representatives wrote in a translated statement on Telegram. They added that the
damage was "currently being assessed" and would be "repaired shortly," giving no details on what had happened, and how
long it would take to fix the problem.
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Meanwhile, Ars Technica reported that the problem occurred with the service platform used to access rockets' engines.
Reportedly, the roughly 22-ton part fell into the "flame trench" below, the portion where the rocket's plumes are
directed. Russia might opt to replace the platform if fixing it takes too long. However, till then, Roscosmos has no way
to launch humans into space. "In effect, from this day, Russia has lost the ability to launch humans into space,
something that has not happened since 1961," Russian space journalist Vitaliy Egorov wrote on Telegram, as reported by
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Roscosmos retired the only other working pad, Site 1/5 (a.k.a. Gagarin's Start) in 2020. Since then, Site 31/6 is the
only one it has that is capable of launching crewed Soyuz rockets. Even though it has two other active cosmodromes,
Vostochny and Plesetsk, inside Russia, they cannot send crewed rockets into space. The Baikonur Cosmodrome was
constructed in the late 1950s. After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Kazakhstan loaned the site to Russia for around $115