Russia aborts three astronauts’ trip to the International Space Station 20 seconds before liftoff

Russian Space Agency Roscosmos canceled the flight of three astronauts on Thursday International Space Stationabout 20 seconds before takeoff, but the crew is okOfficials informed.

rocket Soyuz MS-25 was about to take off from the base Baikonur In kazakhstan carrying astronauts tracy dyson From NASA, Oleg Novitsky from Roscosmos and Marina Vasilievskaya From Belarus.

The cancellation occurred when the Soyuz was already on the launch pad To depart at 13:21 GMT.

Roscosmos reported that takeoff was Canceled by automatic protection system Just when the ship’s engines were ready for launch and were emitting smoke.

“Attention. An automatic flight cancellation has occurred. Bring the launch complex units to their initial position. Prepare your parking 24 hours“, the Russian agency reported during the live broadcast.

NASA commentators, who were also livestreaming the launch, indicated that “The normally expected engine sequence did not start at that time”, twenty seconds before takeoff.

“An automatic command was issued to cancel the countdown, abort the launch,” he said.

According to NASA, “Engineers are already on the launch pad to evaluate what may have caused the disruption,” but the exact cause is still unknown. “The crew on the Soyuz vehicle is safe”,

In the beginning, Soyuz MS-25 was to be launched on March 13But then Roscosmos postponed it till March 21.

The ship’s flight plan was considered Coupling with Prichal module Of the Russian segment of the orbital platform.

this is a New blow to Russian space sectorwho has been suffering for years financing problemsscams Corruption And failuresSuch as the loss of the lunar probe in August 2023 Moon-25,

This flight was also to be the first flight of Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilievskaya.

“It is a great honor and pride for me to represent Belarus on the ISS. “I’m ready to take off,” Vasilevskaya, a flight attendant for Belarusian airline Belavia, told the agency. beltaOne day before the canceled flight.

The President of Russia agreed to Vasilievskaya’s flight, Vladimir PutinWith its Belarusian counterpart and main ally, Alexander LukashenkoIn April 2022.

Americans are currently on the ISS. Loral O’Hara, Michael Barrett, Matthew Dominic And Janet Epps,

For a long time, The Soyuz spacecraft were the only way to reach the International Space Station, But Roscosmos has faced competition in recent years from private companies such as billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.