Station 10 as Soyuz crew arrives amid Baikonur launch pad crisis

by Simon Mansfield
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 28, 2025

Ten people are now onboard the International Space Station after the arrival of three new crew members on the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft. While back on Earth, damage to the Baikonur launch pad raises questions about Russia's ability to sustain future crewed missions in the immediate term and what this means for ISS operations as pressure builds to retire and eventually deorbit the station.

Soyuz MS-28 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 a.m. EST on November 27, carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev on a fast-track rendezvous profile. The spacecraft docked to the station's Rassvet module a few hours later, with hatches opening at 10:16 a.m. EST to officially welcome the trio to the orbital outpost.

Their arrival has temporarily expanded Expedition 73 from seven to ten people, joining NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Jonny Kim, and Zena Cardman, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky, and Oleg Platonov. This population peak is a planned short overlap period to support handover activities, joint operations and maintenance tasks, and a dense schedule of science before the current expedition ends.

Expedition planners expect the station's headcount to fall again in early December when Soyuz MS-27 undocks to bring Ryzhikov, Zubritsky, and Kim back to Earth after their long-duration mission. With that departure, Expedition 73 will conclude and command will transition to the next increment, while Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev remain on board as part of the core crew for Expedition 74 and subsequent operations into mid-2026.

While the spacecraft performed as planned, the launch exposed a serious issue on the ground. After post-launch inspections at Baikonur, Roscosmos reported that damage had been found on several elements of the launch pad used for the Soyuz MS-28 mission. The agency said that all necessary spare parts for repair are available and that the damage will be eliminated in the near future, but it has not yet released a detailed public repair schedule.

Regional media, spaceflight analysts, and unofficial imagery suggest that key service structures at the pad sustained substantial structural damage, potentially limiting Russia's ability to conduct further crewed missions from Baikonur until major repairs or reconstruction can be completed. Some external assessments have warned that the outage could last many months or even extend toward two years, effectively removing Russia's only currently operational human-launch site while work is under way.

For the current ISS crew, the immediate impact is limited. Soyuz MS-28 reached orbit normally, the docking sequence unfolded as planned, and the three newly arrived crew members are expected to carry out a full mission, including science operations, station upkeep, and participation in visiting vehicle traffic. NASA's Commercial Crew vehicles, led by SpaceX's Crew Dragon and now complemented by a revised plan for Boeing's Starliner to fly its next mission as a cargo-only flight, provide the primary U.S. and partner access to the station and add resilience against disruptions in Soyuz launch capability.

The longer-term implications, however, reach far beyond one expedition. Russia has relied on Soyuz and the Baikonur pads for continuous crewed access to orbit since the 1960s, and a prolonged stand-down would mark a historic break in that continuity. If Baikonur cannot support new Soyuz crew launches for an extended period, Moscow could face difficult choices between accelerating work at alternative sites such as Vostochny, seeking deeper cooperation with partners like China, or accepting a reduced role in crewed operations on the ISS and future stations.

For the United States and its partners, a Russian launch gap would test how far existing frameworks for ISS cooperation can stretch when once again one of the two core partners loses independent human-launch capability. It could accelerate the shift toward U.S.-led commercial and international projects in low Earth orbit while also reshaping the balance of influence among Washington, Moscow, and Beijing in human spaceflight, against the backdrop of NASA's plan to operate ISS through 2030 and then deorbit the complex as commercial LEO stations come online.