Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

This Soyuz rocket departed site 31 launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 27, 2025, lofting the Expedition 74 crew toward the International Space Station. The blastoff left behind a damaged launch pad.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Back on blastoff day late last year, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched a three person crew toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

But there was more “blast” to the November 27, 2025 liftoff than intended. That takeoff impacted the pad at Baikonur — Russia’s only active send-off site to support crewed liftoffs to the International Space Station (ISS).

Workers wrap up fixing launch pad 31 after significant Soyuz rocket damage left the complex unusable.
Image credit: Roscosmos

In a just-issued March 3 posting from Roscosmos, the word is that the damaged service cabin for launch pad 31 has been restored at Baikonur.

For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Russia fixes launch pad damaged by Thanksgiving astronaut launch to the International Space Station” – at:

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/russia-fixes-launch-pad-damaged-by-thanksgiving-astronaut-launch-to-the-international-space-station