BAIKONUR, March 22 The State Commission decided to launch the Soyuz 2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS spacecraft -25″ and three cosmonauts on March 23, says a Roscosmos press release.
“Having heard the reports of the work managers, the state commission decided to carry out the launch on the planned backup date — Saturday, March 23, 2024,” the publication clarifies.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft from Baikonur was expected at 16.21 Moscow time on March 21. The launch was canceled approximately 20 seconds before the start.
The main crew of the ship included Russian Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya and American Tracy Dyson. Vasilevskaya is expected to become the first woman in the history of Belarus to be in space.
Initially it was planned that Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will remain on the ISS for 12 days and return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, now docked to the station, along with the American Loral O'Hara, who arrived on it on September 15, 2023. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub who arrived with her will spend more than a year at the station and return with Dyson on the Soyuz MS-25.