A collaboration between an American woman, a Belarusian and a Russian man is something so rare to find nowadays that you might have to look up into space to find it.
Russia interrupted the launch of the Soyuz rocket carrying the three astronauts (and cosmonauts) to the International Space Station.
The launch was suspended a few seconds before takeoff. The crew is safe, authorities said.
The International Space Station is still the symbol of post-Cold War international cooperation. NASA and international partners hope to continue operating it until 2030.
The Associated Press reported:
“The Russian Soyuz rocket was supposed to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan, leased from Russia.
The launch was aborted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before liftoff scheduled for 1.21pm GMT. No cause was immediately given, but NASA said the crew was safe and would be quickly extracted from the Soyuz capsule.”
The American Dyson was making its third trip to the orbital station and this time it will stay there for six months.
Russian Novitsky, on his fourth flight, and the first Belarusian cosmonaut Vasilevskayais will spend 12 days in orbit.
“The three astronauts were to join the station’s crew of NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin.”
The March 21 launch of the crewed Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft has been canceled. More information on the feasibility of the next available launch opportunity will be forthcoming. https://t.co/plakcu9Sqh
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 21, 2024
The crewed launch is reportedly the first mission aborted at short notice in the Russian space program.
RT reported:
“The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, told reporters that the reason for the canceled launch was a voltage drop in the chemical energy source. The crew handled the emergency situation professionally, he said.
According to historian Alexander Zheleznyakov, it is the first time in Russian manned space exploration that a liftoff of a rocket carrying a crewed mission was canceled during the countdown.
“I don’t remember such an incident that there was a cancellation in such a short time before launch,” he told RIA Novosti, adding ‘There have been cases where it was canceled the day before for various reasons’.”