Russia Makes New Attempt To Send Ovchinin, Hague To ISS After Launch Failure In 2018

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft with three new members of the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the launch site

BAIKONUR COSMODROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2019) A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft with three new members of the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the launch site.

Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who survived unscathed the aborted launch in October 2018, as well as NASA astronaut Christina Koch, are on board the Soyuz piloted spacecraft.

The Soyuz is expected to separate from the third stage of the carrier rocket in about nine minutes after the launch.

The docking with the ISS is scheduled for 04.07 a.m. Moscow time (01:07 GMT) on March 15.

On October 11, 2018, a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle failed to orbit the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with Hague and Ovchinin on board as the mission was aborted due to a booster malfunction just minutes after the liftoff.

The two-man crew abandoned the spacecraft in an escape capsule and returned back to Earth unharmed.