Russia launches first rocket from repaired Baikonur launch pad

Russia launched a Soyuz rocket from a repaired launch pad at its Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday, restoring its capability to fly to the International Space Station for the first time since the launch pad was damaged last year.

At 1200 GMT, a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-33 cargo spacecraft lifted off and was placed into orbit, Russia's space agency said. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the International Space Station on March 24.

The launch pad had been out of commission since it was badly damaged in November when a Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut on board blasted off. No one was hurt and the crew safely reached the space station, but the incident deprived Russia of its sole means of sending crew or cargo back to the ISS for months.

While Russia has other cosmodromes on its own territory and Baikonur has other launch sites, the damaged launch pad was the only one able to handle the Soyuz rocket that carries crew capsules and Progress cargo vehicles to the ISS.

-Reporting by Maxim Rodionov;Editing by Peter Graff/Reuters