A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts bound for the International Space Station suffered a rare abort on the launch pad on Thursday (March 21) as the crew waited expectantly inside their spacecraft.
The miscarriage occurred just 21 seconds before a Soyuz rocket launched NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, and space flight participant Marina Vasilevskaya from Belarus to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff was scheduled for 9:21 a.m. EDT (1321 GMT).
“The Soyuz launch to the space station has been cancelled,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during live commentary. He added, “Therefore, there are no visitors to the International Space Station today. The next opportunity to launch, waiting for a solution to what happened today, will be Saturday morning.”
“No reason has yet been given for the miscarriage,” Navias said.
Related: The International Space Station – everything you need to know
The abort was performed by an automatic system shortly before the engine ignited, Navias said. Two umbilical links were pulled away from the rocket before the planned launch. Russian space agency Roscosmos sent engineers to the launch pad shortly after the abort to ensure the vehicle was safe and the crew could be extracted.
“The vehicle is safe, and all refueling operations have stopped,” Navias said. “All safety orders have been provided on board the missile, so there is no danger to the crew. They are completely safe.”
NASA's Mission Control radioed news that the launch had been canceled to astronauts aboard the International Space Station shortly after it happened. Flight controllers explained that the Soyuz crew was safe.
Station commander Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency responded: “Station copies; aborted.” “Most importantly, the station’s copy crew is safe.”
Russian Soyuz rockets and manned Soyuz spacecraft are transport vehicles that regularly transport astronauts and astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Roscosmos has used the spacecraft for crewed flights throughout the ISS's 24-year history, as well as during the previous Mir space station program.
Abort before launch is extremely rare for Soyuz rockets. In October 2018, a Soyuz rocket carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and astronaut Alexei Ovchinin suffered an in-flight abort, forcing the crew's Soyuz capsule to break free from its rocket and make a harrowing emergency landing. This miscarriage was traced to a distorted sensor on a Soyuz rocket.
Dyson, Novitsky, and Vasilievskaya are scheduled to launch on a mission to join the continuing crew on the International Space Station. Dyson and Novitsky plan to spend six months aboard the space station as part of the Expedition 71 crew, while Vasilevskaya is scheduled to begin a 12-day stay and return home with the outgoing Expedition 70 crew.
But it is unclear when exactly the three astronauts will be launched. While Roscosmos said the trio's next launch window will open on Saturday, engineers at Soyuz rocket maker Energia will have to understand why today's Soyuz launch failed and make any repairs that may be needed. NASA pledged to share updates as soon as they receive them from Roscosmos and Energia.
Meanwhile, in Florida, another rocket is counting down to launch to the International Space Station today.
An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship are scheduled to launch more than two tons of new supplies to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is scheduled to launch at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT) and should proceed as planned, Navias said.
“The initial word is that the Falcon 9 launch of the CRS-30 resupply mission to the station will likely go ahead as planned today,” he added.
NASA and SpaceX will provide a live stream of the CRS-30 cargo launch, starting at 4:35 PM EDT (2035 GMT).
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