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Space
WorldRussia & Central Asia

Astronauts blast-off to International Space Station in first launch since Russian rocket failure

  • Previous mission was aborted minutes after blast-off due to a problem with the booster rocket, forcing the pilots to return to Earth in an escape pod

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The Russian Soyuz booster rocket after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 3, 2018. Photo: EPA
Associated Press
Three astronauts successfully blasted off Monday to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan, a perfect launch that follows October’s aborted mission.

Nasa astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled at 5:31pm local time on Monday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

From left: Nasa astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 3, 2018. Photo: EPA
From left: Nasa astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 3, 2018. Photo: EPA
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Their Soyuz spacecraft entered a designated orbit just under nine minutes after the launch and is set to dock at the space outpost in about six hours after making four orbits of the Earth.

Nasa and Roscosmos said that all on-board systems were operating normally and the crew was feeling fine.

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Security personnel ride in an armoured vehicle in front of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft soon before its launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on December 3, 2018. Photo: Reuters
Security personnel ride in an armoured vehicle in front of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft soon before its launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on December 3, 2018. Photo: Reuters
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