Manned Soyuz launch canceled seconds before liftoff — RT World News
The crewed flight is the first to be canceled at short notice in the history of the Russian space program
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, which was supposed to carry a Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft into orbit, was aborted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before its scheduled launch on Thursday. The crew of three astronauts was reportedly declared safe.
The Soyuz vehicle was scheduled to launch at 16:21 local time (13:21 GMT) from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan before docking in the Pritschal module of the International Space Station at 16:35 GMT.
On board the plane were Russian astronaut Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian space flight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, and American astronaut Tracy Dyson.
The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, told reporters that the reason for canceling the launch was a voltage drop in the chemical power source. He pointed out that the crew dealt with the emergency situation professionally.
This is the first time in Russian manned space exploration that the launch of a rocket carrying a manned mission has been canceled during the countdown, according to historian Alexander Zheleznyakov.
“I do not recall an incident like this that led to a flight being canceled so short a time before launch.” He added to RIA Novosti “There were cases that were canceled the day before for various reasons.” At the same time, he pointed out that similar incidents had occurred around the world with drone launches.
According to Roscosmos, the Soyuz MS-25 launch has been rescheduled for Saturday, March 23, and will take place at 15:36 local time.
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