As we remember, the accident of the Soyuz rocket seriously undermined Russia's authority in the space industry. However, in less than a month, Roscosmos launched three missiles of the same system without crews. And all these flights ended successfully.
Our partners from NASA for traveling off the planet emphasized their loyalty to Russia and expressed confidence that the Russians had completely eliminated the problem.
Therefore, Roskosmos officially brought the planned astronaut flight on the ISS for more than two weeks: from 20 to 3 December.
Recall the accident occurred on October 11 in the third minute of the flight. When separating the side blocks of the first stage from the central unit of the second stage of the launch vehicle, the sensor deformed. As noted in Roskosmos, the defect was made at the stage of the rocket assembly. In the capsule were Russian Alexei Ovchinin and his American colleague from NASA Nick Haig. The capsule successfully disconnected from the rocket, and returned safely to the ground.
An earlier start is dictated by the need to give the crew more time to transfer control of the station, as two of the three cosmonauts fly into space for the first time.
It should be noted that the Soyuz rockets today are the only way to deliver astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. Suspending Soyuz rockets for a long time would have caused NASA partners to leave the project for a while, and their astronauts the station.
