Russia canceled its first rocket launch on Friday, after a problem was observed during the final countdown.
Russia scheduled the launch of its Angara orbit-capable space rocket, designed to carry up to 35 tons of payloads, this week. The test mission was organized to serve as a precursor for the country's next orbital launch. It should have been the first launch made by Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the launch was canceled a few seconds after the final countdown.
The cancelation seemed to be approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he was reportedly watching the Angara launch on a live stream for the Kremlin.
The video showed a shaking movement made by the Angara-1.2PP rocket when it assumed its start position at the northern Plesetsk military launch pad.
"The automatic system aborted the launch," Alexander Golovko, commander of Russia's Air and Space Defense Forces reported to Putin, as quoted by Reuters. The president immediately called for a report explaining the cause of the delay.
The development of Angara started a few years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. It served as the nation's symbol for their hope to build next generation rockets designed to help Russia break free from international participation, NASA Spaceflight reported.
This new generation rocket took 20 years to be completed, and is considered Putin's centerpiece in his plan to put Russia at the forefront of the space industry once more. He reportedly hopes Russia will soon be able to launch satellites from a new spaceport being constructed in the nation's far east region.
Some industry experts explained that Russia's need to create and launch their own rockets without the help of other experts stemmed from the tensions from Russia's attempt to annex Crimea as part of their country.
"This (project) decision was made already way back in 1993, with awareness that our former Soviet allies can ditch us at any moment," Igor Lissov, an expert with trade journal Novosti Kosmonovatiki, told Reuters.
