11 Oct 2018 17:12

Soglasie insurance co starts assessing Soyuz MS-10 accident

MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - The Soglasie insurance company has started to assess the circumstances surrounding the incident with the Soyuz MS-10 manned spacecraft, whose mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was aborted minutes after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, the insurer said in a statement.

"This is the third time we have insured space launches in the last three years. If this is deemed to be an insurance event, it will be the first one in recent Russian history of insuring manned space launches. The payout could be one of the biggest in decades. The risks were reinsured by highly rated insurance and re-insurance companies in Russia and the West. We have started to assess the circumstances surrounding this accident," the insurer's general director, Maya Tikhonova, was quoted as saying.

Soglasie insured the risks related to the launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle and Soyuz MS-10 and docking with the ISS. Loss, damage, destruction and aborted ignition were insured for up to 4.65 billion rubles.

Russian National Reinsurance Company President Nikolai Galushin told Interfax that RNRC had reinsured the risks for 800 million rubles. Ingosstrakh said it had reinsured 25% of the risk of 1.16 billion rubles and AlfaStrakhovanie provided more than 100 million in reinsurance.

Soglasie earlier insured the launch of the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft in March 2016 and the Soyuz MS-04 in April 2017.