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Soyuz-FG to perform first liftoff after failed October launch

The launch has been insured for 48 million dollars

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Progress MS-10 space freighter will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Friday, for the first time since the aborted launch in mid-October.

"The Progress MS-10 cargo spacecraft will blast off on November 16, at 21:14 Moscow time. The docking of the spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS) will take place at 22:29 Moscow time on November 18," the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash) has said.

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The spacecraft will dock to the Zvezda module to deliver about 2.5 tonnes of cargo, including fuel, water and pressurized gases. The launch has been insured for a sum of 3.245 billion rubles ($48 million).

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 October 11. 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 safely in the Kazakh steppe. The crew was not hurt. This was the first emergency situation with the launch of a manned spacecraft over the past 35 years.

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The sensor was damaged during the assembly of the rocket’s first stage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

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