Ooops of the Week: Russia accidentally destroys its only working launch pad as astronauts lift off to ISS

No idiot of the week this time, but there is a big "Oops!" This week's OOOPS comes from Russia... destroying their own launchpad by accident!

 

Photo:  A Soyuz rocket that took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 27 safely carried two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut to the ISS, but damaged the launch pad in the process. This photo shows a similar launch from March 2024. (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA )

Russia accidentally destroys its only working launch pad as astronauts lift off to ISS 

By Harry Baker, Live Science, Dec. 2, 2025

The recent launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station has caused significant damage to Russia's only launch pad capable of sending humans into space.

Russia's only working launch pad has been temporarily knocked out of action after sustaining significant damage during the recent launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). This leaves the country unable to send humans into space for the first time in more than 60 years, experts say.

On Thanksgiving (Nov. 27), the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft lifted off from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at around 2:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EST). The rocket was carrying Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev alongside NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who all successfully arrived on the ISS, where they will remain for the next eight months, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported.

However, shortly after the launch, Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, revealed that something had happened to the launch pad during the rocket's take-off: "The launch pad was inspected, as is done every time a rocket is launched," Roscosmos representatives wrote in a translated statement on Telegram. "Damage to several launch pad components was identified."

Russian officials did not reveal which parts of the launch pad had been impacted or how they were damaged, writing only that the damage was "currently being assessed" and would be "repaired shortly."

However, Ars Technica reported that an unnamed eyewitness noticed that during the launch, a roughly 22-ton (20 metric tons) service platform used to access rockets' engines fell into the "flame trench" — the section below the launch pad where the rocket's fiery plumes are vented. (If confirmed, this likely means that the platform was not properly secured in place before the launch.)

 It is unclear how long it will take to fix Site 31/6 or if another decommissioned pad could be retrofitted to take its place. But, until this happens, Russia has no way of launching astronauts.

"In effect, from this day, Russia has lost the ability to launch humans into space, something that has not happened since 1961," Vitaliy Egorov, a Russian space journalist, wrote on Telegram, as reported by CNN. "Now it will be necessary to quickly repair this launch table or modernize another one."