Accident at Baikonur destroys maintenance cabin, indefinitely halts Russia’s crewed and cargo launches to the ISS

A severe accident at Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome destroyed a maintenance cabin and has indefinitely halted the country’s ability to launch crewed Soyuz and uncrewed Progress cargo missions to the International Space Station. The incident removes Russia’s sole operable ground capability for scheduled crew rotations and cargo deliveries pending repair.

Discovered 2025-12-06T17:54:02.709431-08:00 | 2025-12-06T17:54:02.709431-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • The accident creates an immediate pause to Russia’s Soyuz and Progress launch capability to the ISS, jeopardizing scheduled crew rotations and resupply cadence; Russia recently conducted a Soyuz MS-28 launch from Baikonur (see Soyuz MS-28).
  • The incident compounds recent ground-safety and infrastructure issues at Baikonur, including the discovery of an unsecured 20‑ton service platform and a power cut tied to unpaid bills, increasing scrutiny of site reliability (see unsecured 20‑ton service platform and power cut).
  • ISS logistics depend on regular Russian cargo missions — recent Progress flights delivered about 2.8 tonnes — so a prolonged outage will force operational and scheduling adjustments by station partners (see Progress 93 docking).

Reported By

CBS News Science Alert Universe Today
Sources Tracked
3
First Seen
2025-12-06T17:54:02.709431-08:00
Latest Update
2025-12-08T18:27:58.619358-08:00
Coverage
Space

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