After a major Russian launch facility sustained damage, NASA speeds up its Dragon cargo missions
With a key Baikonur launch site sidelined, NASA is accelerating two Cargo Dragon missions to ensure the International Space Station’s crew has sufficient supplies next year. The agency’s internal timeline shows CRS-34 moving up by one month—from June 2026 to May 2026—and CRS-35 advancing three months, from November to August.
A source described these schedule shifts as a direct consequence of a Thanksgiving Day incident at Russia’s Baikonur spaceport. The event involved a Soyuz launch carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, along with NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, for an eight‑month ISS mission. While the rocket itself performed normally, a large mobile service platform beneath it was not secured properly and collided with the flame trench, rendering the launch pad unusable.
Repair work is expected to require at least four months to complete.
Russia has other launch complexes both within its own territory and in nearby former Soviet states, including Kazakhstan. However, Site 31 at Baikonur remains the sole pad currently configured to support Soyuz launches and the two critical spacecraft for the space station: the cargo‑only Progress vehicle and the Soyuz crew capsule.
In the wake of the accident, Roscosmos has been evaluating repair plans and ordering spare parts, with officials indicating that restoring Site 31’s launch capability will take a minimum of four months.
