Booster rocket that was carrying a Soyuz spacecraft, including a Russian and a US astronaut, heading towards the International Space Station, failed in mid-air on Thursday. The crew had to make an emergency landing.
After the failed attempt, the American space agency NASA confirmed that the crew members were safe and made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan where the unsuccessful launch took place.
The rocket was carrying Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague. The inside footages showed that both the astronomers being shaken at the moment when the failure happened.
During the live television commentary, Dean said, "Confirming again that the today's Soyuz MS10 launch did go into a ballistic re-entry mode a little bit after its launch around 3:47 a.m Central Time (4:47 a.m. EDT/0847 GMT). That means the crew will not be going to the International Space Station today. Instead they'll be taking a sharp landing, coming back to Earth."
As per a Reuters reporter, who was present in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, from where the rocket was launched and he said that initially, it had gone smoothly, so the failure of the booster must have occurred at higher altitude.
Later, NASA stated, "There was an issue with the booster from today's launch. The Soyuz capsule returned to Earth via a ballistic descent, which is a sharper angle of landing compared to normal. The Soyuz capsule landed east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan carrying two crew members."
"Search and rescue teams are in the air and heading towards the expected touchdown location for the Soyuz spacecraft returning to Earth carrying two crew members," the space agency said adding that the crew remains in good condition and in touch with ground rescue teams.
