Vladimir Putin, center, and Dmitry Rogozin, far right, tour Vostochny in October, 2015. (credit: Kremlin)
On Wednesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country's senior space official, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, were on hand to see the inaugural launch from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in the far east of Russia. They had to be disappointed after a technical glitch with the rocket delayed the launch for one day.
Based upon an unnamed source, the Russian TASS agency reported the delay came after the rocket's automated launch system "identified a glitch in one of the instruments of the control system responsible for starting and stopping the engines, for the separation of rocket stages, and for the direction of flight." The delay was not due to a problem with the the new launch infrastructure, according to reports.
It is not clear how Putin took the delay, but he will apparently remain at Vostochny for 24 hours to see the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket on Thursday (10:01pm ET Wednesday). However a displeased-looking Rogozin apparently "hastily withdrew" from a launch observation deck after the cancellation and did not respond to questions from reporters.
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