David Saint-Jacques, Anne McClain and Oleg Kononenko will take off this Monday from the cosmodrome of Baikonur (Kazakhstan) to the International Space Station (ISS) are "confident" before the launch of their rocket Soyuz. The first since the failure of the last manned flight in October.

On Monday morning, David Saint-Jacques, Anne McClain and Oleg Kononenko joined their firing point a few hours before this much-anticipated takeoff, nearly two months after the failure of the launch of a Soyuz rocket that had seen its two occupants, Nick Hague and Alexey Ovitchinin, being forced to return to restless Earth.

David Saint-Jacques, particularly cheerful, sent kisses to the crowd, who saluted and applauded the trio as he went to the firing point. They are all unanimous. The three members of the expedition have "confidence" , according to the words of the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, the Soyuz rocket that will make them leave the Earth's atmosphere and the team of the Russian space agency Roskosmos having development.

"The risk is part of our job," said Kononeko, the 54-year-old and already three spaceflight flights, saying "psychologically and technically ready " , said Sunday during the traditional launch watch press conference. For takeoff.

"We are ready for takeoff"

The three scientists will take off at 1131 GMT from Baikonur, the Russian cosmodrome located in the heart of the steppes of Kazakhstan, for a mission of six and a half months in orbit 400 kilometers above the Earth.

On October 11, the rocket carrying the American Nick Hague and the Russian Alexey Ovitchinin had failed two minutes after takeoff. This failed launch, the first for a manned flight in the history of post-Soviet Russia, had rekindled doubts about the Russian space industry, plagued by many failures in recent years.

"We are psychologically and technically ready for take-off," added experienced cosmonaut Kononenko, who will be the fourth space mission.

Among the missions assigned to the Russian figure is an exit in space, scheduled for December 11, to investigate the hole discovered in August in a Soyuz spacecraft moored at the orbital station, which caused a slight decompression of the ISS.

An "incredibly safe" system

Along with Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Anne McClain said she was "really ready" for the launch. "We are ready to leave and we do not think about it," said the 39-year-old former air pilot about the October 11 accident.

David Saint-Jacques, for his part, praised the "incredibly safe" Soyuz spacecraft that will take them in just seven hours aboard the Station.

"They returned to Earth safe and sound. In a sense, this event reassures me about the Soyuz's intelligent design and the amazing work of the research team here on Earth, " said the 48-year-old cosmonaut. Governor General of Canada Julie Payette will be in Baikonur to witness her take-off.

A few weeks after the accident, the commission of inquiry set up by Roskosmos had concluded the "deformation" of a sensor during the assembly of the Soyuz rocket in Baikonur.

Russia's space industry struggling

This failed launch illustrates the continuing difficulties of the Russian space industry. The construction of the new cosmodrome Vostochny, inaugurated in April 2016, was marked by many corruption cases and the Russian court of accounts pinned Roskosmos late November for the disappearance of several hundred billion rubles "stolen" .

The sector also suffers from manufacturing and design flaws, such as the loss of a Progress space cargo ship in December 2016, after which the authorities had recalled the Proton rocket engines.

Still, Soyuz rockets are the only way to get men on the ISS, several officials have stressed the reliability of the rocket whose security system has brought safely back to Earth both astronauts.

Since the accident, several Soyuz rockets have taken off unhindered, including one on November 16 carrying a Progress cargo ship refueling to the station.

Originally scheduled for December 20, the launch of Monday was advanced to ensure a permanent presence in the ISS, while the current crew of Sergei Prokopiev, Alexander Gerst and Serena Auñón-Chancellor is due back on Earth December 20 .

This Monday, the docking at ISS of the crew is scheduled at 17:30 GMT, just six hours after the launch.