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Launch of Soyuz rocket rescheduled due to voltage spike, Roscosmos CEO says

Roscosmos said earlier that the launch would take place at 09:07 Moscow time (06:07 GMT) on March 21

MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, expected to deliver 38 satellites to orbit, was rescheduled for a backup date due to a voltage spike, CEO of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Agency Dmitry Rogozin told TASS on Saturday.

"There was a voltage spike and we decided not to take chances. We will restart the countdown," he noted.

Roscosmos said earlier that the launch would take place at 09:07 Moscow time (06:07 GMT) on March 21.

The 38 satellites particularly include South Korea’s CAS500-1 remote sensing satellite, Japan’s ELSA-d space junk removal craft, Japan’s GRUS remote sensing microsatellites, Saudi Arabia’s NAJM-1 small satellite pathfinder for Earth observation and communications, and Berlin Technical University’s communications satellites. The Soyuz rocket is also expected to put into orbit the first D33 satellite of Russia’s Higher School of Economics, a CubeSat developed by the Sirius Center and Higher School of Economics and an OrbiCraft-Zorkiy satellite belonging to Russia’s private company Sputnix.