First Soyuz Launch from South America Delayed

Soyuz VS01, the first Soyuz flight from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Credit: ESA

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The first launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Europe’s new South American Spaceport in French Guiana has been postponed at least 24 hours due to technical problems. “Following an anomaly detected during fueling of the Soyuz launcher’s third stage, the final countdown has been interrupted,” ESA said in a statement. “Soyuz and its two Galileo IOV satellites, along with the launch facility, have been placed in a safe mode. A new launch date will be announced later today.”

UPDATE: ESA has announced a new launch time for Friday, October 21 at 10:30:26 GMT (6:30 EDT).

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The problem was caused by a leak inside a valve. The Galileo system is being launched as a new GPS system, which will provide more than double the coverage and more accurate locations than the current US-provided Global Positioning System.

The launch was originally scheduled for last year, bad weather delayed the construction of the Soyuz launch facility.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/