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       Russia called off the scheduled launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station just moments before takeoff on Thursday, but officials confirmed the crew was safe.

       The Russian Soyuz rocket, set to launch from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases, was meant to transport NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky from Roscosmos, and Marina Vasilevskaya from Belarus.

       An automatic safety system halted the launch approximately 20 seconds before the planned liftoff at 1321 GMT. Both Russia's Roscosmos space corporation and NASA confirmed the crew's safety, with Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov announcing a rescheduled launch attempt for Saturday.

       Borisov told reporters that experts swiftly identified a voltage drop in a power source as the reason for the aborted launch.

       Amid rising tensions due to Moscow's military activities in Ukraine, the space station remains a beacon of post-Cold War international collaboration, marking one of the few areas where Russia and the West still work together. NASA and its international partners aim to extend the operation of the orbiting laboratory until 2030.