Soyuz Rocket Carrying US Astronaut, Russian Cosmonaut Fails During Launch, Crew Falling Back to Earth

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a new U.S.-Russian crew to the International Space Station failed during its ascent Thursday (Oct. 11) , sending its crew capsule falling back toward Earth in a ballistic re-entry, NASA officials said. NASA has confirmed it is in contact with the crew aboard the capsule and says it will take about an hour and a half for a crew on the ground to meet up with the astronauts once they land.

"Confirming again that the today's Soyuz MS10 launch did go into a ballistic re-entry mode a little bit after its launch around 3:47 a.m Central Time (4:47 a.m. EDT/0847 GMT)," NASA spokesperson Brandi Dean said during live television commentary. "That means the crew will not be going to the International Space Station today. Instead they'll be taking a sharp landing, coming back to Earth."

The crew is returning to Earth in a ballistic descent mode. Teams are working to obtain additional information from our Russian partners. Watch live updates: https://t.co/mzKW5uDsTi pic.twitter.com/kWigYS1gU4
— NASA (@NASA) October 11, 2018

A Soyuz capsule carrying two astronauts lifted off at 4:39 a.m. EDT on Oct. 11, 2018, before a failure later in the launch sequence.
Credit: NASA TV

NASA has not provided much detail about the failure, but confirmed in a tweet that there was a problem with booster separation. During the live broadcast of the launch, narration from mission control suggested that the booster failed to separate from the Soyuz capsule.

Had the launch gone smoothly, Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague would have reached the space station later today.

This story will be updated as more information is available.

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