Russia launches Soyuz MS-25spacecraft at 2nd attempt
Moscow, Mar 23 (EFE).- Russia on Saturday launched the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft at the second attempt with three crew members on board, including the first Belarusian cosmonaut, Marina Vasilevskaya, bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
The launch, broadcast live on television and dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s birth, was carried out at 12:36 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the help of a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket. The Russian space agency Roscosmos suspended Thursday’s planned liftoff a few minutes before the scheduled launch time after citing a “dropout” in the technical power supply. Initially, Soyuz MS-25 was to be launched on Mar. 13, before it was postponed to Mar. 21. The Soyuz MS-25 crew consists of Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya, who is flying in space for the first time, Russian Oleg Novitski and American Tracy Dyson.
Novitski and Vasilevskaya will stay on the ISS for a total of 12 days, after which they will both return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-24. Vasilevskaya’s flight was agreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin with his Belarusian counterpart and main ally, Alexandr Lukashenko, in April 2022. Currently on the ISS are Americans Loral O’Hara, Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps. EFE mos/ks
