3 astronauts blast off to International Space Station
Three astronauts have blasted off to the International Space Station, a successful launch that follows October's aborted mission.
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS-11 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. [Photo: AP/Dmitri Lovetsky]
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. (11:31 GMT) 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.
U.S. astronaut Anne McClain, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Canadian astronaut David Saint Jacques pose during a news conference in Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018. [Photo: AP/Dmitri Lovetsky]
Since the mishap, four successful Soyuz launches have been conducted to clear the path for the crew's launch.