Space station crew lands safely after Soyuz rocket malfunction during launch

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station on Thursday. Shortly after launch, there was an anomaly with the booster and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft.

The crew who were aboard, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, are in good condition. After landing, the crew was transported to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), a partner in the International Space Station program, is monitoring the situation. “Safety of the crew is the utmost priority for all space agencies,” CSA said in a statement following the launch abort. “A thorough investigation into the cause of the incident will be conducted by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. It is not known whether this will affect Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques' launch date of Dec. 20, 2018.”