[U: See More Deets, In A Later Post!] Both Chris Williams And Jonny Kim Recently Hopped Soyuz Rockets To The ISS -- But It Looks Like The Baikonur Cosmodrome Facility Is Out Of Commission For A Few Months, Now...

UPDATED 12.03.2025 | Afternoon: Here's a lot more detail -- and graphical explainers -- about what all this might mean, in very remote Kazakhstan. End, updated portion.

Chris Williams and his fellow crew mates safely arrived at the ISS, last week -- but on liftoff, the Kazakhstan launch facility took some serious damage [it was plainly some ground level malfunction -- and likely, a fairly large. . . explosion, of some sort].

Here's the latest, with a NASA comment, at the end:

. . .While the Soyuz MS-28 crew on board the rocket, including cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev, as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, safely made it to the International Space Station, the launch pad was heavily damaged in the process. Drone footage shows the platform’s mobile maintenance cabin lying upside down inside the flame trench, with experts telling NASASpaceflight that it could take months if not years to be repaired.

It’s a significant setback, because the damaged pad is Russia’s only certified launch site for crewed missions to space. . . .

“NASA is aware Roscosmos is inspecting Launch Pad 6 at Site 31 following launch of the Soyuz MS-28 on November 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan,” a NASA spokesperson told Futurism in a statement. “NASA coordinates closely with its international partners, including Roscosmos, for the safe operations of the International Space Station and its crew members. . . .”

For its part, the government head of Russia's space efforts says that nation is committed to supporting ISS flights through 2028. But that was before this significant cock-up. We shall see. Onward.

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