Soyuz craft launches en route to International Space Station, 2 days after glitch

[March 25, 2024]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, a Belarusian and an American en route to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched on Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, live footage showed. 

Crew members of the expedition 70/71 to International Space Station (ISS) Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky (bottom) and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson (top) board the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 23 March 2024. Yuri Kochetkov/Pool via REUTERS

The original planned launch was aborted seconds before takeoff on Thursday because of a problem with a chemical power source.

The Soyuz, carrying Russian Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya and American Tracy Dyson, is due to dock with the ISS at 1510 GMT on Monday.

Space is one of the last remaining areas where the United States and Russia continue to collaborate despite the dire state of their relations as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.

Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will return to Earth on April 6 with Loral O'Hara, a U.S. astronaut currently aboard the orbital station.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Mark Potter)

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