Two days after a rare abort derailed its first attempt, a Russian Soyuz rocket is now set to launch three astronauts into the International Space Station on Saturday, March 23.

The crewed Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft was scheduled to be launched by the rocket on Thursday, March 21, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Only 21 seconds remained before liftoff, though, when an unanticipated voltage drop occurred in some of the rocket’s gear.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, is now satisfied that the issue has been resolved, and liftoff is scheduled for this Saturday at 8:36 a.m. EDT (12:36 GMT).

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and Belarusian spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya will go to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.

The three will arrive on Monday, March 25, and dock with the station’s Prichal module at 11:09 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT), if all goes as planned.

While Dyson will spend six months living on the ISS, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will return to Earth in just a week. On her short voyage, flight attendant Vasilevskaya will make history as the first Belarusian woman in space.

SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule, which was sent into the sky by a Falcon 9 rocket, launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday despite the Soyuz MS-25 abort.

During this mission, which is the 30th that SpaceX is flying to the orbiting lab as part of its contract with NASA, Dragon is delivering roughly 3 tons of food, scientific equipment, and supplies to the station. About an hour before Soyuz MS-25 takes flight, on Saturday at roughly 7:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT), the capsule is expected to dock with the ISS.

Topics #Russia #Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft #Three Astronauts