MONTREAL – The Canadian Space Agency is confirming that astronaut David Saint-Jacques will launch Dec. 3 for a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
The fate of the Canadian’s voyage had been in question after a Soyuz rocket failure last month, but now he will blast off more than two weeks earlier than originally planned.
The agency says in a statement the re-scheduled launch date will help maintain science work and time-critical operations aboard the space station.
Saint-Jacques’ departure was originally scheduled for Dec. 20.
An investigation by the Russian space agency determined that a malfunctioning sensor caused a Soyuz rocket to fail shortly after it was launched in Kazakhstan on Oct. 11.
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The problem occurred two minutes into the flight, sending the capsule holding NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Alexei Ovchinin of Roscosmos plummeting 50 kilometres to earth. Neither man was injured.
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