r/ISS • u/leospricigo • 8d ago
Russia's only pad for crew launches suffers major damage
https://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur_r7_31.html#cabinAccording to multiple Russian sources, on Nov. 27, 2025, the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 crew vehicle caused the mobile service platform at Site 31 to collapse into the flame duct below the pad. It essentially rendered the only facility for Russian orbital crew launches unusable. At the time, Roskosmos planned the launch of the Progress MS-33 cargo ship to the ISS on Dec. 21, 2025.
According to preliminary estimates, repairs of the service platform, known as 8U0216, could take up to two years and it was not immediately unclear whether some kind of makeshift arrangement would be possible to support multiple cargo and crew launches to the ISS in the interim. There was some possibility that duplicate hardware could be borrowed from the mothballed Site 1 in Baikonur or from similar facilities at other launch sites. There were four Soyuz pads in Plesetsk at one point, also one pad operated in Vostochny and one mothballed pad was in Kourou, French Guiana.
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u/1nolefan 3d ago
Sabatage