The evacuation of astronauts from the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft has begun: the launch was canceled at the last moment

The launch was blocked by automation

Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, the first ever female cosmonaut from Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya and American Tracy Dyson are preparing for evacuation from the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. This is reported by a MK source in the space industry.

Photo: AP

We would like to remind you that today the state commission authorized the refueling of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft and its launch from the 31st site was scheduled for 16:21:18 Moscow time.

However, literally within a few seconds the launch was canceled — the automation worked.

Currently, the masts supporting the launch vehicle have been returned to their place, the elevator for evacuating the astronauts has been raised to the ship. Other reserve dates will be scheduled for the restart. Perhaps it will be Sunday, March 24th. According to experts, such a situation where cosmonauts, who were already a minute from the launch, had to return, has never happened in the history of Russian manned cosmonautics. NASA has had similar cancellations, including due to weather.

It is too early to talk about the reason that led to the cancellation of the launch, a source in the space industry told MK. “There are a lot of parameters, but these are not weather conditions.”