First Soyuz Launch from South America Delayed

By Nancy Atkinson - October 20, 2011 at 3:27 PM UTC | Space Exploration

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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).

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 Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com