Launch pad damaged as Russian rocket blasts off for space station, agency says

The Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, carrying the crew formed of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on November 27, 2025. Grigory Sysoev/Sputnik/AP

A launch pad at Russia’s main space complex was damaged during Thursday’s launch of a mission carrying two Russians and an American to the International Space Station, Moscow’s space agency announced.

The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft successfully docked with the space station and the three crew members had boarded, Roscosmos said.

But a post-launch inspection at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan revealed “damage to several elements of the launch pad,” a