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BAIKONUR COSMODROME, March 23. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket, which will send the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with the first space flight participant from Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya, Russian Oleg Novitsky and American Tracy Dyson to the ISS, launched from Baikonur, the correspondent reports.
The rocket launched at 15:36 Moscow time from the 31st launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The crew of the Soyuz MS-25 included Russian Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya and American Tracy Dyson. Vasilevskaya should become the first woman in the history of Belarus to be in space.
Initially, the launch of the spacecraft was planned for 16.21 Moscow time on March 21 from Baikonur. The automation canceled the flight right before takeoff, when the crew was already in the ship. The cause was a voltage drop in the chemical current source. The start was postponed to Saturday.
Due to ballistic conditions, it will not be possible to carry out an ultra-short flight and dock the spacecraft to the ISS a little over three hours after launch, as was planned for the launch on March 21. It is expected that the Soyuz MS-25 will fly according to a standard flight pattern, which takes more than two days. Docking to the Russian module «Prichal» is scheduled for 18:10 Moscow time on March 25.
The deadline for Novitsky and Vasilevskaya's return to Earth has also been moved: from April 2 to April 6. In total, they will spend 12 days on the ISS and return home 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.