Did Russia accidentally destroy its ability to send cosmonauts into space? • FRANCE 24 English

Did Russia accidentally destroy its ability to send cosmonauts into space? • FRANCE 24 English

Over by the big board, we’re joined by uh Maya. Yet again, good evening to you, Maya. A few days ago, Russia launching a Soyuse rocket to the International Space Station. Since then, viral posts claim that Moscow has accidentally destroyed its only launch pad capable of sending humans into space. Do tell us more. So, it all went at first according to plan. Everything was ready for takeoff, liftoff here at the Bicono Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. That’s the spaceport operated by Russia since 1955. And on November 27th, the rock cat was sitting on this launch pad, that’s the number six, site 31. And at 14:27 sharp local time, the Syuse MS-28 successfully lifted off carrying a threeman crew for expedition 74, two Russians and one American, just in time apparently for Thanksgiving dinner according to this website, just in time for many other meals because they’re going to stay there for the next eight months. So, the problem wasn’t thankfully reaching the ISS station, but rather what happened on the ground back on Earth because take a look at this video. Uh, Mark, you’re going to see something strange on the live stream broadcast by Ross Cosmos, basically the Russian NASA. You can see here that there is something here, something wrong, like some sort of collapsed structure. Okay. Uh, we can see some sort of large metal structure. Uh Maya, tell us what happened to it exactly. Well, if you look at this photos, I think it’s going to be easier for you to look at the damage because here is what I’ve just shown you. And here is a photo of what happened before the launch, a few a minute before it. According to experts, what you are looking at here is the platform’s mobile maintenance cabin lying upside down inside the flame trench. Obviously, I’m going to translate it for you, Mark. The cabin is huge. It’s roughly 19 m by 17 m. It weighs 150 uh tons and it is supposed to sit under the rocket. So the engineers can access the engine engines for the first and the second stage of the so use. And then right before the launch, this cabin gets moved under the launch pad. But apparently well the cabin was pulled out of his nook and fell down from a height of 20 mters and ended up just like this. So obviously the Russians had to inspect the site and in a statement posted on telegram they explained that there was a problem that there was a damage that was identified obviously and they also added that all necessary spare components are available for repair and that the damage will be repaired shortly. So then is it true that Russia has lost the ability to operate manned flights into space for the first time in 60 years? That is what some are saying including Ukraine’s center for strategic communication. They’re saying that uh they lost this ability to send cosmonauts and for now well that is true. According to experts, the only way to resume a launches is to install a spare maintenance cabin that they do not really have apparently or construct a new one. And building a new one obviously takes a lot of time. According to a previous structures recently built, it has taken around 2 years to complete. So according to experts, what we’re looking at right now is anywhere between several months to up to 3 years. So it is safe to say that the next launch that is scheduled for December 21st will not take place will be postponed. So of course you might be wondering but then why not use other cosmodromes? Russia must have some others and of course they have but the site that was damaged is this the only one that they can use to send crew and cargo to the ISS. other ones are just not located correctly on the globe or or even decommissioned and turned into a museum. So the best replacement option to be honest would have been to ask French Guyana and the site in Kuru but it is off limits because Moscow decided to suspend its cooperation with the Europeans the European Space Agency in retaliation for EU sanctions taken after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Maya was truth or fake. Thank you very much indeed.

On November 27, Russia launched a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station. Since then, news articles are claiming that Moscow has accidentally destroyed its only launch pad capable of sending humans into space. According to experts looking at the footage, this is true for the first time in decades. Roscosmos said it would repair the damage “shortly”, but analysts doubt this is doable in less than a few months, if not years. We take a closer look in this edition of Truth or Fake.
#russia #iss #soyuz

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