FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Russia Successfully Launches a Soyuz Rocket
Oct. 25, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russia launched a Soyuz rocket today, just two weeks after a failed launch to the International Space Station on Oct. 11. The payload was a reconnaissance satellite, used for electronic surveillance. The launch was originally scheduled for last week, but was delayed due to the failure. Although the commission investigating the failure has not announced the cause, obviously know what it is, and they checked today’s rocket before launching it.
The next launch of an unmanned Progress cargo supply ship to the space station is scheduled for Nov. 18. The next crewed flight is to take place in December. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said that they expect that launch, whose crew will include a NASA astronaut and Roscosmos cosmonaut, to take place as scheduled.
Nothing beats the track record of the Soyuz—over 1,800 variations of the rocket that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin have been launched. Although over recent years Russia has suffered a number of launch failures, these were in upper stages, not the Soyuz.
