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Soyuz: first manned mission to ISS since October failure
Why is it in news?
- A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit, in the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.
More in news
- It was the first manned launch for the Soviet-era Soyuz since October 11, when a rocket carrying Russia’s Aleksey Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague failed just minutes after blast-off.
- Astronauts escaped unharmed but the failed launch — the first such incident in Russia’s post-Soviet history — raised concerns about the state of the Soyuz programme.
- The Soyuz is the only means of reaching the ISS since the U.S. retired the space shuttle in 2011.
- The accident highlighted the “smart design of the Soyuz and the incredible work that the search and rescue people here on the ground are ready to do every launch.
- Russia-US cooperation in space has remained one of the few areas not affected by a crisis in ties between the former Cold War enemies.
Source
The Hindu