A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station has blasted off, two days after its launch was aborted at the last minute.

The spacecraft carrying Nasa astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus launched with no apparent problems from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.

Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy wave as they board their Soyuz rocket for launch to @Space_Station 📷: https://t.co/TMO3G0eIai pic.twitter.com/u4C12LJHAU

— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) March 23, 2024

The launch had been planned for Thursday, but was halted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled lift-off.

The head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Borisov, said the launch abort was triggered by a voltage drop in a power source.