The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket to the ISS was automatically canceled, the engine did not start
On Thursday, March 21, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft was supposed to leave the Baikonur cosmodrome from launch pad No. 31 (Vostok), but the launch was canceled at the last moment. The countdown was stopped about 20 seconds before the start time.
"Attention is on the launch complex. The automatic cancellation of the launch has passed. Bring the units of the launch complex to their initial state. Prepare for parking for 24 hours," said the announcer of the broadcast, which was conducted by Roscosmos.
The launch is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who first visited space. The image with it was applied to the media.
Why was the launch of the Soyuz MS-25 canceled?
According to the host of the NASA broadcast, the launch of the Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) was canceled due to the engines of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket not turning on in time.
"The cable mast moved away from the rocket, but the expected engine activation did not happen at that moment, and the automatic system canceled the launch," he explained.
It is expected that the second attempt to launch the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with a Russian-Belarusian-American crew will take place no earlier than Saturday, March 23.
What is known about the ship's crew?
The main crew of the 21st visiting expedition included cosmonaut of the Roscosmos State Corporation Oleg Novitsky, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and the first participant of the space flight from Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya. Their understudies were Belarusian Anastasia Lenkova, cosmonaut Ivan Wagner and Donald Pettit, who is the oldest active NASA astronaut.
Marina Vasilevskaya will become the first female cosmonaut in the history of independent Belarus to take part in a space flight. As part of the selection for space flight, she beat three thousand other candidates. Prior to that, the Belarusian worked for six years as an instructor flight attendant at Belavia Airlines and was professionally engaged in ballroom dancing for 15 years.
"My family and friends are very supportive of me. They were very happy when they found out that fate had given me such a chance. When I worked as a flight attendant at Belavia Airlines, I had no idea that I could fly even higher," Vasilevskaya said about the reaction of her family to the upcoming space flight.
What kind of mission are they going to do?
Ivan Bucha, Deputy head of the Aerospace Activities Department of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, said that as part of the mission, the crew will perform a number of scientific research — seven experiments, of which five are research and two are educational.
"Four scientific organizations are taking part from Belarus. These will be experiments in the field of medicine, biology, physiology, and remote sensing of the Earth. By the way, the ISS has photo and video equipment for exploring the earth's surface using Belarusian developments, which will also be used in one of the experiments," Bucha said.
Novitsky and Vasilevskaya are expected to stay on the ISS for about two weeks and return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft together with NASA astronaut Laurel O'Hara, and the Dyson mission will last longer. She will remain at the orbital station until September and will fly back on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft together with Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.