After a heart-pounding delay, the Russian Soyuz rocket has finally soared into the cosmos! 🚀 Carrying three brave astronauts, the rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday, aiming for the International Space Station (ISS). 🌌
The stellar crew includes NASA's own Tracy Dyson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, and Marina Vasilevskaya from Belarus. They launched smoothly this time around, just two days after an automatic safety system halted their initial liftoff mere seconds before takeoff. Talk about a plot twist! 😲
So, what caused the last-minute drama? According to Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency, a voltage drop in a power source triggered the abort. But no worries—the team regrouped and made a flawless launch on their second try. 👍
Now soaring through space, their capsule separated from the rocket just eight minutes post-launch. But here's the catch: instead of a quick trip, they'll spend two days completing 34 orbits around Earth before docking with the ISS. If Thursday's launch had gone as planned, they'd be there in just two orbits! 🛰️
Once they arrive, they'll team up with an international crew: NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, plus Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin. It's going to be one epic space meetup! 🌠
The mission doesn't stop there. Novitsky, Vasilevskaya, and O'Hara are scheduled to return to Earth on April 6, so stay tuned for more cosmic adventures! 🌎
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Russian Soyuz rocket with 3 astronauts blasts off to the ISS
cgtn.com
