Before the launch, all the cosmonauts were in high spirits, and hardly anyone could have guessed how difficult this key stage of their journey into space would be.
"Attention, automatic start abort is in progress," the signal suddenly sounded.
The reason was voltage sag of the chemical power source. The main thing is that the automatic systems controlling the launch clearly worked. How at such a moment Marina Vasilevskaya found the strength to pull herself together and not to give up.
Marina Vasilevskaya, cosmonaut, Hero of Belarus:
We went through all the abnormal situations that are possible. Of course, we didn't discuss, didn't go through the cancelation of the start. It was unexpected for everyone. But this situation showed the reliability of Russian space rocket technology, which canceled the launch literally in 20 seconds. And I think it's good that it happened like that, on Earth, and it could have been fixed. I was more worried about my relatives and friends, about you, about Belarusians who came to support us in such a far distance and stood waiting for the rocket launch, and the rocket didn't launch. So we were more worried about our relatives.
Marina said that the cosmonauts calmly took the information that the launch was postponed. They were expecting evacuation, which was the first time, the crew had never been evacuated from a rocket before.
