Launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a cosmonaut commander, a guest flier from Belarus and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson was aborted at the T-minus 20-second mark Thursday, delaying the crew’s planned flight to the International Space Station.With veteran commander Oleg Novitskiy at the controls, flanked on the left by Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya and on the right by NASA veteran Tracy Dyson, the countdown was ticking smoothly toward liftoff at 9:21 a.m. EDT when an unidentified controller called an abort.Access gantries are lifted back into position after launch of the Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft was aborted at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. / Credit: NASA TVNo explanation was immediately provided, but NASA’s launch commentator said the crew was safe and the rocket was in a stable configuration as ground crews began re-erecting launch pad gantries to gain access and to help Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and Dyson out of the Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft at the top of the booster.NASA commentator Rob Navias in mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said the next launch opportunity is Saturday, which would set up a docking at the space station Monday. But he said that would depend on the nature of the problem that triggered the abort and what might be required to fix it.Flight controllers in Houston told the space station crew the Soyuz launch had been aborted and that its crew was safe, ending with “it’s going to be a few days before you guys have visitors up there.”The Soyuz MS-25/71S crew (left to right): NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, spacecraft commander Oleg Novitskiy and Belarus guest flier Marina Vasilevskaya. Dyson plans to spend six months aboard the station, replacing astronaut Loral O’Hara. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will spend just 12 days aboard the outpost and will return to Earth with O’Hara after about two weeks on the station. / Credit: NASAIn the meantime, SpaceX engineers pressed ahead with work to ready a Falcon 9 rocket for launch from Cape Canaveral at 4:55 p.m. EDT to send a Dragon cargo ship to the station loaded with 6,200 pounds of science gear, spare parts and crew supplies.The flight plan called for the Cargo Dragon to catch up with the station and to move in for docking early Saturday.Whenever they get off, Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and Dyson will be joining ISS comm …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnLaunch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a cosmonaut commander, a guest flier from Belarus and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson was aborted at the T-minus 20-second mark Thursday, delaying the crew’s planned flight to the International Space Station.With veteran commander Oleg Novitskiy at the controls, flanked on the left by Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya and on the right by NASA veteran Tracy Dyson, the countdown was ticking smoothly toward liftoff at 9:21 a.m. EDT when an unidentified controller called an abort.Access gantries are lifted back into position after launch of the Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft was aborted at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. / Credit: NASA TVNo explanation was immediately provided, but NASA’s launch commentator said the crew was safe and the rocket was in a stable configuration as ground crews began re-erecting launch pad gantries to gain access and to help Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and Dyson out of the Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft at the top of the booster.NASA commentator Rob Navias in mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said the next launch opportunity is Saturday, which would set up a docking at the space station Monday. But he said that would depend on the nature of the problem that triggered the abort and what might be required to fix it.Flight controllers in Houston told the space station crew the Soyuz launch had been aborted and that its crew was safe, ending with “it’s going to be a few days before you guys have visitors up there.”The Soyuz MS-25/71S crew (left to right): NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, spacecraft commander Oleg Novitskiy and Belarus guest flier Marina Vasilevskaya. Dyson plans to spend six months aboard the station, replacing astronaut Loral O’Hara. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will spend just 12 days aboard the outpost and will return to Earth with O’Hara after about two weeks on the station. / Credit: NASAIn the meantime, SpaceX engineers pressed ahead with work to ready a Falcon 9 rocket for launch from Cape Canaveral at 4:55 p.m. EDT to send a Dragon cargo ship to the station loaded with 6,200 pounds of science gear, spare parts and crew supplies.The flight plan called for the Cargo Dragon to catch up with the station and to move in for docking early Saturday.Whenever they get off, Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and Dyson will be joining ISS comm …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
