The failed launch of an International Space Station crew on a Russian rocket less than two weeks ago is not expected to delay the launch of the next crew in December, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday.

If this deadline were met, this would reduce the risk that crews would have to abandon the $ 100 billion orbit laboratory for an extended period, if at all.

At a meeting of the National Space Council chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, Bridenstine said the investigators thought they understood what had prevented the flight of the Soyuz-FG rocket two minutes after it took off. of Kazakhstan on 11 October.

A Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin aborted from the rocket at an altitude of 31 km and landed safely under parachutes about half an hour later.

"We have a very good idea of ​​the problem," said Bridenstine. "We are about to understand even better what will allow us to launch again with confidence."

A crew of three had to start on December 20th. Bridenstine has not specified a date, but said that the next launch was about to unfold before Christmas, which seems to indicate a minimal or no delay.

The crew would not change: Anne McClain, NASA's first recruit, Oleg Konokenko of the Russian Space Agency and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency.

Hague, 43, the first member of his astronaut class on a space flight, will be waiting to be assigned to a later mission.

Meanwhile, the crew of Expedition 57, consisting of three people currently in orbit, was due to return home on 13 December, but an extension of the mission seems likely.

Without extension, a series of 18 year old humans living on the station would be broken. According to NASA, the outpost could fly uninhabited for a "significant" period if necessary.

A spokesman for NASA would only confirm that the timing of the next launch "will be determined once the investigation is over".

The first attentions focused on one problem as four first-stage propellers burned and separated from the rocket, one of them being apparently caught and striking the reminder of the second ignition, triggering a automatic abandonment.

Bridenstine said that several Soyuz rockets were to fly in the coming weeks before the next arrival of the crew, providing an opportunity to demonstrate that the rocket problem was solved.

"NASA is regrouping, we are rescheduling and we are getting ready again," he said. "In December, we plan to put our crew on a Russian Soyuz rocket for launch on the International Space Station."

As the most famous "successful failure" of the Apollo 13 mission by NASA in 1970, Bridenstine said the recently failed launch of Soyuz – the first with a crew on board for 35 years – was remarkable for its happy ending.

"It was probably the most successful failed launch we can imagine," he said. "So, for all this, we are grateful."

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