Russia has successfully launched a manned Soyuz rocket into space, two months after a previous launch failed, the country’s space agency said on Monday.
In October, a Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronaut were forced to abort their mission after a rocket bound for the International Space Station failed, sending them plunging back to Earth in an emergency landing.
On Monday, a Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts from Russia, the U.S. and Canada departed from the Baikonur site in Kazakhstan run by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
Monday’s launch was needed to guarantee that the ISS was not left unmanned after the station’s current crew returns to earth later this month.
The three new crew members include Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian space agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques.
