A Russian Soyuz spacecraft was scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday. A few seconds before takeoff, it was canceled and the crew, consisting of a Russian, a Belarusian and an American, was safely evacuated, Reuters reports.
Soyuz shuttle launch canceled, you tube video capture
“Release!” announced the mission coordinator in Russian as the rocket was presented at the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe, with a main thruster pulling away. Then the words “auto cancel release” appeared on the live stream just 20 seconds before the scheduled launch.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said there was a power failure of a chemical power source about 20 seconds before liftoff and that it was not yet known what caused the power fluctuation. Abandoning the launch in such a short period of time is an extremely rare situation.
Roscosmos said the launch of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft would take place on March 23 at 1236 GMT, and the head of the space agency, Yuri Borisov, played down the drama. “Fellows, this is the space and the situation is quite easy to understand,” he said.
NASA television stated that the second rocket support had withdrawn, but without engine initiation. Those presenting the live broadcast for Roscosmos reported: “Unfortunately, friends, the order to cancel the launch has been issued.” The crew, which includes NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, had been introduced to the rocket just before the cancellation.
The astronauts from the Soyuz shuttle were supposed to arrive at the ISS, you tube video capture
Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya were supposed to stay only 12 days on the ISS and return home with American engineer and astronaut Loral O'Hara on April 2, according to NASA.
Tracy Dyson, on the other hand, was to spend six months aboard the ISS, his mission being to conduct experiments on technology that would help people prepare for future space missions, the US space agency said.
