Astronauts Made Emergency Landing After Rocket Failure

Voice of America
11 Oct 2018, 20:05 GMT+10

BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN - NASA says that two astronauts from the U.S. and Russia are in good condition after an emergency landing following booster rocket failure minutes after the launch.

U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos' Alexei Ovchinin lifted off as scheduled at 2:40 p.m. (0840 GMT; 4:40 a.m. EDT) Thursday from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz booster rocket.

They were to dock at the orbiting outpost six hours later, but the booster suffered a failure minutes after the launch.

The two made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan at an unspecified time. Search and rescue crews scrambled to reach the expected landing site.

It's the first space mission for Hague, who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2013. Ovchinin spent six months on the station in 2016.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have sunk to post-Cold War lows over the crisis in Ukraine, the war in Syria and allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential vote, but Russia and the U.S. have maintained cooperation in space.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Afghanistan Sun.

More Information

16 ℃

Kabul

International

Section

Putin: ISIS has taken hundreds of people hostage in Syria

MOSCOW, Russia - The Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a revelation related to the ongoing war in Syria, that ...

Gang arrested after parental abductions sweep Australia

CANBERRA, Australia - A two year investigation by Australian Federal Police has netted a gang of four people involved in parental abductions. ...

Rift between Turkey and Saudi Arabia could unravel

The Oct. 2 disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul has put a spotlight ...

Bomb explosion at college in Russia-annexed Crimea kills 18

MOSCOW, Russia - A bomb exploded at a college in the Black Sea region of Russian-annexed Crimea on Wednesday, leaving ...

Gunmen shoots scores of students at college in Crimean city

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Up to nineteen people are dead, many of them students, after a student at a college in ...

Khashoggi family and UNHRC want transparent investigation

GENEVA, Switzerland - The UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the family of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi have called for ...

Central Asia

Section

Movie Review

Germany Year Zero (Germania anno zero) [Blu-Ray]

Featured story

Ireland's Keywords Studios acquires Canada's Snowed In

DUBLIN, Ireland - Following its successful acquisition of Hollywood-based Blindlight, Irish video-gaming company Keywords Studios has now announced its latest accomplishment. Keywords r ...