Russian Soyuz rocket failure caused by faulty sensor: agencies

Head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin (C) poses with astronauts Alexey Ovchinin of Russia and Nick Hague of the U.S., who survived the mid-air failure of a Russian rocket, on onboard a plane during a flight to Chkalovsky airport near Star City outside Moscow, Russia October 12, 2018. Russian space agency Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Soyuz rocket launch failure this month was caused by a faulty sensor, Russian news agencies reported citing an official from space agency Roscosmos.

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague had to abort their mission on October 11 and perform an emergency landing after the Soyuz rocket supposed to carry them to the International Space Station failed.

The Soyuz rocket is launched with Expedition 57 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan October 11, 2018. NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via REUTERS

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Andrey Kuzmin; Editing by Alison Williams)