Not (N)Yet! : Russia’s Inaugural Launch Delayed for 24 hours

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Credit: Roscosmos

From Tass:

“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.”

Note: Russia elected to not televise the initial launch attempt from Vostochny. Now certain officials might be regretting that decision. In a development reminiscent of certain scenes from the Star Wars, Vladimir Putin showed up at the Far eastern spaceport to watch the launch in person. Now, according to reports in TASS, he has elected to stay over until the next launch attempt and make the time productive by holding “meetings” with spaceport personnel.

Bet that is fun.