Launch to ISS aborted

The two astronauts made an emergency landing but were unharmed

Two astronauts were forced to abort their flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on 11 October. An anomaly occurred when the rocket booster was due to separate from the spacecraft, triggering a safety warning. The crew capsule automatically fired its engines, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, to safety.

The event closely follows an incident in September, when a hole was found in the hull of a Soyuz spacecraft while it was docked with the ISS. The Russian space agency Roscosmos has put crewed launches on hiatus until they uncover the exact cause of the issue.

If launches haven’t resumed by December 2018, when the current crew will be forced to return to Earth for safety reasons, the station could be left uncrewed for the first time since 31 October 2000. en.roscosmos.ru

Alexey Ovchinin, left, and Nick Hague embrace their families at Krayniy airport after a flight to the ISS was aborted