Moscow says sensor to blame for rocket failure

Moscow said the launch of a Soyuz rocket last month failed because of a damaged sensor. Russia is the only country able to take astronauts to the International Space Station, but suspended all launches after the failure on October 11, minutes after blast-off. Oleg Skorobogatov, head of the investigation commission, said part of a sensor that indicates the separation of the rocket stages was damaged at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. “The cause of a non-standard separation” was a “deformation” of a part during assembly, he said. This caused one of the four boosters to malfunction and collide with a fuel tank, which “led to the loss of stabilisation” and triggered the emergency landing, he said.