A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two astronauts has been forced to make an emergency landing after a failure was detected shortly after take-off from Kazakhstan.
NASA says American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin are in good health after being rescued from the emergency landing site about 400 kilometers away from the launch pad.
They were heading for a six-month mission on the International Space Station when their flight was aborted minutes after lift-off following problems with the booster rocket.
Russian officials are investigating the cause of the malfunction and Moscow says there will be no further manned missions until there is an absolute guarantee of safety.
