Russia reschedules Soyuz launch after failure to blast off
The rocket had been due to take off from Russia’s Baiknonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image: Maxim Shipenkov – Pool /AFP
Russian space agency Roscosmos has delayed the launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo ship by two days after Sunday’s planned lift-off was aborted at the last minute.
“During the launch, an order was made for the engines to be automatically turned off, the causes are being clarified,” a Roscosmos statement said.
“The launch is rescheduled for the reserve date of February 13.”
The supply freighter, known as Progress 69, was mounted atop a Soyuz2.1a which had been scheduled to lift off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the aim of reaching the International Space Station (ISS) in a record three-and-a-half hours.
Earlier, a source in the Russian space agency told news agency Interfax that the launch may have failed due to a computer failure in the control system. AB
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