Astronauts successfully take off for International Space Station

Staff

7 years ago

U.S. astronaut Anne McClain, left, Russian cosmonaut Оleg Kononenko‎, centre, and CSA astronaut David Saint Jacques, members of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), report to members of the State Committee prior to the launch of Soyuz MS-11 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP file)

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — Three astronauts have blasted off to the International Space Station, a successful launch that follows October’s aborted mission.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled at 5:31 p.m. (3:31 a.m. PST) Monday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Alexei Ovchinin failed two minutes into its flight on Oct. 11, activating an automatic rescue system that sent their capsule into a steep ride back to Earth. A Russian investigation attributed the failure to a sensor that was damaged during the rocket’s final assembly.

Since the mishap, four successful Soyuz launches have been conducted to clear the path for the crew’s launch.