First Rocket launch from Russia's Vostochny Spaceport delayed

The first rocket launch from Russia's Vostochny spaceport might have been halted after a sensor registered deviation in one of indicators of Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket, a source in the rocket and space industry told (TASS) on Wednesday.

    "These are indications of a sensor. I do not know for sure, telemetry should be reviewed, but if automatic systems aborted the launch, this means one of the parameters was beyond parameters set for the rocket," the source said.

    The first launch from the Vostochny spaceport was due to take place at 5:01 a.m. Moscow time (02:01GMT) on Wednesday. Russia's government commission at the Vostochny spaceport earlier approved of the decision to carry out the launch.

    The Soyuz-2.1a space rocket was due to put three satellites - Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 - into orbit. However, automated control system aborted the launch 1.5 minutes before the scheduled time. The commission is currently investigating the reasons for launch abortion.The launch was preliminarily postponed for 24 hours.

Source: QNA