On October 11, 2018 at 08:40 UTC the Russian “Soyuz MS-10” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was to be orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-FG” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft was piloted by 2 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin (right) and American astronaut Tyler Hague.

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

The “Soyuz MS-10” spaceflight aborted shortly after launch due to a failure of the “Soyuz-FG” launch vehicle boosters. It was intended to transport two members of the Expedition 57 crew (Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and American astronaut Tyler Hague) to the International Space Station. A few minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft went into contingency abort due to a booster failure and had to return to Earth. By the time the contingency abort was declared, the launch escape system (LES) had been ejected and the landing capsule was pulled away from the rocket using the back-up motors on the capsule fairing. Both crew members were recovered alive in good health.

The Soyuz MS-10 flight abort was the first instance of a Russian manned rocket-carrier accident at high altitude in 43 years, since the “Soyuz-18-1” spacecraft failed to make orbit in April 1975  with Soviet cosmonauts Vasiliy LAZAREV and Oleg MAKAROV.

The current ISS expedition members: Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopiev, German astronaut Alexander Gerst and American astronaut Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor continue their mission on board the ISS.