Russia accidentally destroys its only working launch pad as astronauts lift off to ISS

Russia's only working launch pad has been temporarily knocked out of action after sustaining significant damage during the recent launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). This leaves the country unable to send humans into space for the first time in more than 60 years, experts say.

On Thanksgiving (Nov. 27), the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at around 2:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EST). The rocket was carrying Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev alongside NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who all successfully arrived on the ISS, where they will remain for the next eight months, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported.

However, shortly after the launch, Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, revealed that something had happened to the launch pad during the rocket's take-off: "The launch pad was inspected, as is done every time a rocket is launched," Roscosmos representatives wrote in a translated statement on Telegram. "Damage to several launch pad components was identified."

Russian officials did not reveal which parts of the launch pad had been impacted or how they were damaged, writing only that the damage was "currently being assessed" and would be "repaired shortly."

However, Ars Technica reported that an unnamed eyewitness noticed that during the launch, a roughly 22-ton (20 metric tons) service platform used to access rockets' engines fell into the "flame trench" — the section below the launch pad where the rocket's fiery plumes are vented. (If confirmed, this likely means that the platform was not properly secured in place before the launch.)

It is unclear how long it will take to fix Site 31/6 or if another decommissioned pad could be retrofitted to take its place. But, until this happens, Russia has no way of launching astronauts.

"In effect, from this day, Russia has lost the ability to launch humans into space, something that has not happened since 1961," Vitaliy Egorov, a Russian space journalist, wrote on Telegram, as reported by CNN. "Now it will be necessary to quickly repair this launch table or modernize another one."

The Baikonur Cosmodrome was constructed in the late 1950s, when Russia was part of the Soviet Union and was locked in a space race with the U.S. that ultimately ended with the Apollo moon landings. Since the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the site has been loaned back to Russia by Kazakhstan for around $115 million a year.

Russia has two other active cosmodromes, Vostochny and Plesetsk, within its own borders. However, neither of these sites can currently launch crewed Soyuz rockets.

Site 31/6, which has been used for more than 400 successful rocket launches, became the last operational launch pad at Baikonur in 2020, when Roscosmos retired the only other working pad, Site 1/5 (a.k.a. Gagarin's Start). The decommissioned pad was used to launch Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in 1961, and parts of it could now be used to repair Site 31/6, according to Space.com.

Russia launches astronauts to the ISS every six months, less frequently than it did in the past. That's partly due to the emergence of SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rockets, but also because Russia is rolling back its involvement in the ISS project, which is due to end by 2030.

The next crewed ISS mission is scheduled to take off from Site 31/6 in July 2026, while an uncrewed supply run is supposed to launch in less than three weeks, on Dec. 20, according to Space News.

Whether or not Russia will be ready for these launches will be "a real-life test of their resilience," Jeff Manber, a space policy expert who leads the space stations division of the private aerospace company Voyager Technologies, told Ars Technica. "We are going to learn just how important the ISS is to leadership there."

Russia is also currently scheduled to launch missions from Site 31/6 that will help build the new Russian Orbital Service Station, currently due to begin construction in 2027, Egorov wrote.

Once the ISS is decommissioned, Russian cosmonauts are also expected to be sent to China's Tiangong space station, as the two countries strengthen their ties to achieve their shared goal of building a base on the moon by 2035. (It is unclear which country these astronauts will be launched from.)

China has also experienced its own spacecraft fiasco in recent weeks. In early November, a suspected space junk collision impacted a return capsule attached to Tiangong, stranding three astronauts in space. The trio was later returned to Earth onboard another capsule, which temporarily marooned three more astronauts before the launch of an unmanned "lifeboat" on Nov. 24.