Russia’s latest Soyuz mission reached the International Space Station without a hitch. The launch pad it used was not so lucky.
For more than six decades, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan has been Russia’s main gateway to space. On 27 November 2025, that legacy came at a cost. The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft blasted off successfully with two Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Chris Williams onboard, docking with the International Space Station (ISS) a few hours later. But after the celebrations, engineers inspecting the pad at Site 31/6 discovered significant structural damage.
Drone footage and ground images shared by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and independent analysts show parts of the service structure collapsed into the flame trench beneath the pad. This is no ordinary bit of infrastructure: Site 31/6 is currently Russia’s only active launch pad certified for crewed missions. Its sudden failure raises a stark question: can Russia keep sending people into space in the near term?
What exactly happened at Baikonur?
During the Soyuz MS-28 launch, a Soyuz 2.1a rocket carried the crewed capsule into orbit as planned, sending the three-person crew on an eight-month expedition to the ISS. According to Roscosmos, the launch itself proceeded “without incident” and the spacecraft docked on schedule, with the crew in good health.
Only later, post-launch inspections revealed that “a number of elements” of the launch complex had been damaged. Imagery reviewed by spaceflight observers indicates that a key part of the mobile service platform or maintenance cabin in the trench below the pad appears to have been torn loose and dropped into the exhaust channel. That structure houses cabling, plumbing and access equipment needed to prepare future rockets on the same pad.
Roscosmos has said all necessary spare parts are available and that repairs will be completed “very soon”, but has not yet published a detailed technical report on the cause.
Why this launch pad matters so much
The damage matters because Russia no longer has multiple crew-rated pads to fall back on. Baikonur’s historic Site 1, known as “Gagarin’s Start” for the world’s first human spaceflight in 1961, was retired from crewed service in 2019 after decades of use and a lack of funding for upgrades. Since then, almost all Soyuz flights carrying people to the ISS have used Site 31/6.
Other Russian launch facilities exist — such as the newer Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East and additional pads at Baikonur — but they are currently configured for cargo, satellites or test flights rather than certified crewed missions. Until Site 31/6 is repaired and recertified, Russia effectively has no operational launch pad approved for sending astronauts into space.
That reality is particularly striking given Russia’s role as a founding partner of the ISS program and its long-standing reputation as a spacefaring nation. For the first time in decades, Moscow’s human spaceflight capability rests on a damaged piece of Soviet-era infrastructure.
What it means for the ISS and international partners
In the short term, the Soyuz MS-28 crew is safely onboard the ISS, and station operations continue as normal. The mission was part of a broader crew-exchange agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, which allows American astronauts to fly on Soyuz and Russian cosmonauts to ride SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicles. That arrangement gives both sides redundancy in case one system is grounded.
However, if Baikonur’s pad remains offline for an extended period, Russia could struggle to launch future Soyuz crews and cargo ships on its usual schedule. That could force NASA and its partners to lean even more heavily on commercial spacecraft launched from the United States while Roscosmos works out repairs.
Swikblog has already covered the successful liftoff and docking of the MS-28 mission in detail in our earlier report on the launch timing and crew profile. You can read that background piece here: Soyuz MS-28 Launch — Chris Williams Reaches the ISS.
Internationally, the incident will likely sharpen questions about Russia’s long-term plans in human spaceflight. Moscow has talked about building its own national space station and expanding launches from Vostochny, but both projects have suffered delays and funding constraints.
How long could repairs take?
Roscosmos insists that the damage can be fixed quickly, stressing that replacement components for the affected systems are already in stock. In contrast, several independent space-policy analysts note that rebuilding a complex, heavily stressed structure under a launch pad is rarely easy or fast. Engineers will need to assess whether only the service platform was affected or whether deeper structural elements — such as the trench lining, support beams or cabling ducts — also require work.
If the problem is limited to replaceable hardware, repairs might be completed within months. But if extensive concrete and structural steel must be demolished and reconstructed, the outage could last much longer and require significant investment. Until the pad passes fresh safety reviews and test firings, it is unlikely to be cleared for another crewed launch.
What happens next for Russia’s space program?
In the coming weeks, expect several parallel tracks. First, Roscosmos will continue structural inspections and begin repair work at Baikonur. Second, planners will re-evaluate the upcoming manifest of Soyuz crew and cargo missions, deciding which launches can be delayed, cancelled or potentially reassigned to other pads for uncrewed flights.
Third, Russia will face renewed pressure to accelerate upgrades at alternative sites, especially Vostochny, if it wants a true backup for crewed launches. That would require not only new infrastructure but also substantial funding, certification campaigns and political will.
For now, the irony is stark: a mission that succeeded in delivering new crew to the ISS has left the country that launched them without a clear short-term path for the next human flight. Whether this becomes a brief setback or a turning point for Russia’s role in orbit will depend on what Baikonur looks like after the dust — and concrete — settles.
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