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Spare components for repair of service platform delivered to Baikonur spaceport

"Work to restore the maintenance cabin and launch facility is in full swing," Deputy General Director for Rocket Projects of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Baranov said said

MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. The complete set of spare components for the repair of a maintenance cabin (service access platform) at Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been delivered to the spaceport. The launchpad was damaged during the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle liftoff on November 27, Deputy General Director for Rocket Projects of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Baranov said on Tuesday.

Roscosmos reported on November 27 that an inspection of the launch site that was conducted after the launch detected damage to several launchpad components.

"Work to restore the maintenance cabin and launch facility is in full swing. Heavy-duty trucks carrying components for the maintenance cabin began arriving at the cosmodrome on December 1. All 18 trucks have arrived to date. Workers are priming the maintenance cabin and adding more top coats. As many as 130 employees of Roscosmos enterprises are involved in the work," Baranov told reporters.

Damage to a number of launch pad elements was discovered after inspecting the Baikonur Cosmodrome rocket launch site, and the condition of the complex is being assessed, Roscosmos reported earlier. "The launch site was inspected, as is done every time after a rocket launch. Damage to a number of launch pad elements was detected. Such damage may appear after launch, so an inspection like this is mandatory in international practice. The condition of the launch complex is currently being assessed," the statement said.

Roscosmos specified that "all the necessary spare parts are available for restoration, and the damage will be repaired in the near future."

The Soyuz-2.1a booster rocket with the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft that was launched from the Baikonur spaceport at 12:28 p.m. Moscow time (9:28 a.m. GMT) on November 27 took to the International Space Station (ISS) members of the 74rd long-duration ISS expedition: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (expedition commander and TASS special correspondent aboard the ISS) and Sergey Mikayev, as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Williams.

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