A Soyuz rocket launched from Russia successfully transported three astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday, after a prior launch delay just two days earlier.

The Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan successfully launched a spacecraft with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky, and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus on board.

The scheduled liftoff on Thursday was delayed due to an automatic safety system being activated approximately 20 seconds before. Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s space agency, stated that the launch abort was caused by a decrease in voltage from a power source.

The rocket successfully released the space capsule, which entered into orbit just eight minutes after takeoff. The capsule will spend two days completing 34 orbits before reaching the space station. If the launch had taken place on Thursday as planned, the trip would have been much quicker with only two orbits needed. The expected time for docking is now 1510 GMT on Monday.

Three astronauts were scheduled to join the crew of the station, which includes NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Russians Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin.

Novitsky, Vasilevskaya, and O’Hara are scheduled to come back to Earth by April 6.

The space station, which has served as a symbol of post-Cold War international cooperation, is now one of the last remaining areas of collaboration between Russia and the West amid tensions over Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. NASA and its partners hope to continue operating the orbiting outpost until 2030.

Russia has continued to rely on modified versions of Soviet-designed rockets for commercial satellites, as well as crews and cargo to the space station.

Source: wral.com