New delay for the astronauts who were to have left for the planet today International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch was scheduled for 14:21, Spanish peninsular time, and it was automatically canceled 20 seconds after takeoff, when the engines were ready and began to emit smoke. The reason, as explained by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has been a 'voltage drop'.
'Attention. There has been a automatic flight cancellation. Bring the launch complex units to their starting state. Prepare for parking for 24 hours,' Roscosmos reported during the broadcast of the launch.
The astronauts who occupied the ship Soyuz MS-25mounted on the carrier rocket Soyuz 2.1a, have been able to leave the ship normally. Is about Tracy C. Dyson by NASA and Oleg Novitskiy and Marina Vasilevskaya by that of Roscosmos. Vasilevskaya was also going to be the first Belarusian astronaut to reach space.
Today's Soyuz launch was aborted at the 20-second mark. The spacecraft and crew remain safe. Teams at Baikonur will provide updates as they make assessments. pic.twitter.com/xPBtWtDDsh
— NASA (@NASA) March 21, 2024
'In the final stage of preparations took place an emergency situation and the whole process was interrupted. We know the reason. We just found out at the State Commission meeting that the reason was the voltage drop in the technical power supply', said the director of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisovafter suspension.
Roscosmos, which has not provided further details about the malfunction that prevented takeoff, has announced that the next attempt will be carried out this Saturday March 23 at 1:36 p.m., Spanish peninsular time. Borisov has assured that 'it's all under control'.
This is the second delay suffered by the expedition 70 to the International Space Station. The initial launch date was last March 13, but Roscosmos postponed it until March 21. Novitski and Vasilevskaya plan to stay on the ISS for a period of 12 days after which they will return to Earth on Soyuz-MS 24, while Dyson will stay for six months.