After its launch was aborted seconds before schedule on Thursday, March 21, the Russian Soyuz Capsule took off on Saturday, March 24, bound for the International Space Station with three crew members on board.
Knewz.com has learned that the Soyuz Capsule blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 5:36 p.m. local time and slipped into orbit eight minutes and 45 seconds later.
Onboard the spacecraft are two short-duration crew members, namely, Soyuz MS-25/71S commander Oleg Novitskiy and Belarusian guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya, along with NASA veteran astronaut Tracy Dyson, who is bound for a six-month tour of duty.
According to CBS News, Vasilevskaya, the cosmonaut who is one of the short-duration crew members, is the first citizen of Belarus to fly in space since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
"She was selected as a "spaceflight participant" in a nationwide competition and will conduct research for scientists in Belarus as part of a program known as the Belarusian Woman in Space," the news outlet reported.
NASA astronaut Dyson, on the other hand, is making her third spaceflight and the second one onboard a Russian Soyuz Capsule. Despite the politically strained relationship between the United States and Russia, of which Belarus is a staunch ally, Dyson only had good things to say about working with Belarusian guest cosmonaut Vasilevskaya.
"It's actually been a real delight working with Marina... She's got a fantastic attitude, and that goes a long way when you're working together with emergency masks on your face in awful conditions trying to get through (emergency training) procedures. She's been a real delight to work with," Dyson said in a statement, according to CBS.
Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya are set to spend 12 days aboard the International Space Station.
The Soyuz MS-25/71S is expected to dock at a port on the station's Earth-facing Prichal module of the International Space Station on Monday, March 25, at around 11:09 a.m. local time.
"As the Soyuz countdown ticked toward a late afternoon launch in Kazakhstan, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station caught up with the space station and moved in for docking at 7:19 a.m. local time, bringing 6,200 pounds of science gear, spare parts, and crew supplies to the lab complex, including fresh food and coffee kits," CBS News reported about the launch.
Originally, the Russian Soyuz Capsule was scheduled to launch on Thursday morning, March 21. However, it was aborted 20 seconds before the scheduled launch when an automatic system was triggered.
The liftoff was due to take place at 9:21 a.m. EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. During the live video commentary of the countdown, at T-20 seconds to liftoff, NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said, "The Soyuz launch to the space station has been aborted. So, no visitors to the International Space Station (ISS) today.”
Space.com reported that Navias later said the abort was “triggered by an automatic system shortly before engine ignition; two umbilical connections were retracted away from the rocket ahead of the planned launch.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, space reporter and author Anatoly Zak posted a picture of the mast already separated from the rocket and wrote, “If I am not mistaken, the lower umbilical tower of the #Soyuz rocket should normally retract at T-15 seconds, so if the launch abort took place at T-20 seconds, as NASA says, this mast was still supposed to be connected to the rocket.”
CBS reported that this was the first time a Soyuz Capsule launch was aborted like this, adding that it took Russian engineers "a day to review telemetry, pinpoint the problem and replace suspect batteries. Subsequent testing showed all systems were go for a second launch attempt Saturday."