Soyuz spacecraft to launch Saturday, reach space station Monday, officials say

Launch of Russian Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft canceled at last minute

A view shows the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft following its launch cancellation at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, March 21, 2024. REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev/File Photo

Source: REUTERS

A problem that forced the last-minute cancellation of a crew launch to the International Space Station has been successfully resolved and it will now take off on Saturday and dock with the ISS on Monday, Russian officials said.

The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya and American Tracy Dyson was aborted seconds before lift-off on Thursday due to what Russian space agency Roscosmos described as a problem with a chemical power source.

Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov told Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Friday that the issue had been solved and expressed confidence in a successful launch on Saturday, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

What you don't know about the latest generation of Chinese robots: Opinion

Roscosmos said the Soyuz will dock with the ISS at 1510 GMT on Monday. Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will return to Earth on April 6 with Loral O'Hara, a U.S. astronaut currently aboard the orbital station.

The launch site is the Baikonur cosmodrome in the steppe of Kazakhstan.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.

By Reuters