A Soyuz rocket booster failed during the launch of a capsule carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin Thursday, forcing officials to abort their mission. The capsule made a “ballistic landing” and rescue teams recovered the pair, who are reportedly in “good condition,” NASA says.
Hague and Ovchinin launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:40 a.m. ET. More than a minute after launch, their Soyuz MS-10’s booster failed.
Helicopters were able to reach Haig and Ovchinin fairly quickly and extract them from the capsule. They then started the process of flying back to Baikonur.