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Cosmonaut Ovchinin to continue work in Star City after Soyuz-FG failure - source

Additional checkups in Moscow have confirmed that health of the Soyuz MS-10 crew is good after the accident with the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle, a source told TASS

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. NASA Astronaut Nick Hague will soon leave for the United States and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin will continue work in Star City, a source in the space industry told TASS on Saturday.

"The crew has already met with the commission at Baikonur. Also, the astronauts had been interviewed shortly after a welcome meeting at Moscow’s airport. Nick Hague soon flies to the US. But the commission is going to have more questions for Alexei Ovchinin in the course of their work," he said.

"Generally speaking, everything is obvious so minimum information is needed from the crew," he added.

Additional checkups in Moscow have confirmed that health of the Soyuz MS-10 crew is good after the accident with the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle, a source told TASS.

"Immediately after their arrival in Moscow, the crew had an additional medical examination which confirmed that they are alright," he said.

The rescue and search service demonstrated exemplary work after the crash of the Soyuz-FG rocket when they found the Soyuz MS-10 crew in Kazakhstan’s steppe and transported them to the Baikonur spaceport in record three hours’ time, a source said.

"The search and rescue service worked like clockwork. No delays. Only three hours passed and the crew was in Baikonur," he said.

A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, at 11:40 a.m. Moscow time. On board the spacecraft were Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin (the commander of the Soyuz MS-10) and NASA astronaut Nick Hague.

Following a smooth liftoff, the Soyuz’s booster malfunctioned between the first and second stages of separating, whereupon the crew was forced to abort the flight and switch to ballistic descent. The manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft ended up landing in the Kazakh steppe.

The press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported that rescuers recovered the crew from the descent capsule. Later, the crewmembers were examined and found to be in good condition. After their medical check-up in the town of Baikonur, the astronauts were transported to Moscow.

This is the first emergency landing with this type of carrier rocket over the past 35 years.