The launch of a Soyuz launch vehicle carrying two astronauts from Belarus and the US and a Russian cosmonaut in a space capsule to the ISS space station was surprisingly canceled on Thursday. The reason given was technical problems.
The launch vehicle carrying the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft was scheduled to lift off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in the steppe of the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan at 2:21 PM CET. However, the mission ended 20 seconds before the scheduled launch, as seen in the live broadcast on NASA TV.
“Voltage loss in power source”
The Russian space agency Roscosmos later cited technical problems as the reason: “a voltage drop in a chemical power source” was detected shortly before launch, according to Roscosmos boss Yuri Borisov. The crew was safely extracted from the capsule. The next possible launch would take place on Saturday at the earliest, according to NASA TV.
Meanwhile, in the US, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifted off as scheduled from Florida’s Cape Canaveral spaceport on Thursday afternoon (local time) to deliver nearly three tons of equipment and supplies to the ISS.
The first Belarusian woman is to fly into space
On board the launch vehicle “Soyuz” were Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky. Vasilevskaya, 33, who works as a flight attendant for the Belarusian company Belavia, is the first woman in her country to fly into space. It was also the first time that two women would fly together aboard a Soyuz capsule to humanity’s outpost 250 miles above Earth. There was already a female duo during a “Soyuz” return from the ISS.
Cooperation despite sanctions
Space cooperation continues despite US sanctions against Russia and Belarus and despite political tensions between the countries. “Regardless of the turbulence, we will continue our international cosmic cooperation,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who also heads the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said in Baikonur.
Source: Krone
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