Soyuz FG fails during ascent – Soyuz MS-10 crew safe after ballistic entry abort
The Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, launched their Soyuz MS-10 crew vehicle with two new crewmembers that were set for the International Space Station. However, the launch – which took place on Thursday at 0840 UTC from Baikonur – failed a few minutes into flight. Soyuz MS-10 was then aborted on a ballistic entry, before safely landing downrange of the launch site.
The crewed Soyuz, which would normally ferry three people to the Station, was carrying a reduced crew complement as part of Russia's initiative to keep their total crew presence on Station to just two until the launch, late next year, of their primary science lab, Nauka.
However, those plans are unlikely to apply now Soyuz MS-10 has failed to arrive at the ISS, with the Soyuz FG likely to be grounded for some time as a State Commision invesigation[sic] takes place.
Also at The Verge, Reuters, and CNN, and CBS.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday October 11 2018, @09:08PM
The '83 pad fire/explosion was the only time the escape tower was ever used. The recent failure and the '75 failure are kinda similar in flight path in the sense both were after the escape tower was jettisoned.
There isn't a hardware system so much as they just kinda come on for a landing, admittedly not all the way from orbit. Presumably this is the first time with that software subroutine or similar.