Apollo-Soyuz Remembered
On a historic anniversary for Russian-American cooperation in space, and only three days after a brilliant launch of a crucial component of the International Space Station, Russia stopped the countdown for the launch of two European research satellites seconds before liftoff on Saturday.
The decision to abort came after technicians discovered a technical glitch in the main booster rocket, RIA news agency reported.
July 15 marks the 25th anniversary of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, a nine-day mission in 1975 in which NASA astronauts docked an Apollo module with a Soyuz craft piloted by Soviet cosmonauts in the first U.S.-USSR joint space mission, CBS News Correspondent Peter King reports.
On Wednesday, the space agency completed a flawless launch A Proton rocket bearing the Zvezda module of the long-delayed International Space Station.
Saturday's launch was aborted after the Soyuz rocket malfunctioned, a space official at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was quoted as saying. Russia leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan.
The new launch date will be announced on Sunday, the official said, adding that the cause of the malfunction was not immediately clear.
Saturday's launch was supposed to have been the first real test of the new powerful Russian-made Frigate booster rocket, which is designed to deliver into space up to 20 satellites at a time.
The booster was to have put two Cluster-2 satellites into high orbit after Soyuz carried them out of the Earth's atmosphere.
The satellites, built by the European Space Agency, are to be used to investigate how solar storms affect the Earth's atmosphere.
Interfax news agency said three other European satellites had been successfully put into orbit by a Russian rocket earlier on Saturday.
The agency quoted a spokesman for Russia's strategic rocket forces as saying an Italian Mita satellite and two German satellites, Champ and Bird, were circling the Earth at 300 miles of altitude.
The satellites were launched from Russia's northern Plesetsk cosmodrome.