Russia has resumed space missions from Baikonur

Russia has restored the ability to send missions to the International Space Station ISS after upgrading a damaged launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-33 cargo ship has successfully launched and is scheduled to dock with the ISS on March 24.

The original ramp was decommissioned after an incident last November when the launch damaged the infrastructure, although the crew arrived safely in orbit.

The problem temporarily limited Russia in resupplying the station, as it was the only ramp capable of launching Soyuz rockets for both crew and cargo.

(reuters, mja)