NASA and SpaceX target new Crew-6 launch date after scrubbed effort

By Trevor Mogg February 28, 2023

After NASA and SpaceX scrubbed the launch of Crew-6 just a couple of minutes before lift-off early on Monday morning, officials have announced they’re now targeting Thursday for the next launch effort.

The team called off Monday’s launch attempt at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when it suddenly encountered an issue in the ground systems affecting the loading of the ignition fluids for the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry the astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) inside the Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule.

Recommended Videos

They’re now aiming to launch the crew at 12:34 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 2 (9:34 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1).

Traveling aboard the Crew Dragon as part of Crew-6 will be NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Following in the footsteps of numerous international astronauts who’ve traveled to the ISS over the last two decades, they’ll spend about six months aboard the orbital outpost, living and working in microgravity conditions.

Much of their time will be spent performing carefully designed science experiments, among them a fascinating effort that will involve gathering samples of bacteria and fungi from surfaces on the outside of the space station.

The experiment will investigate whether any microbes exist around parts of the station such as its life support system vents, and try to determine how easily they can survive and whether they can spread. This should help planners of future crewed missions into deep space better understand the potential dangers of the human contamination of environments.

The crew will also perform spacewalks for the upgrade and maintenance of the station.

Supposing the Crew-6 mission gets underway early on Thursday morning ET, the beginning of it will be live-streamed by NASA on its YouTube channel. The docking procedure and welcome ceremony at the space station will also be broadcast when it takes place about 24 hours later.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Space

SpaceX shares spectacular close-up footage of Starship launch and landing

The Starship launching from Starbase in October 2024.

SpaceX has shared footage, which you can watch below, showing a spectacular close-up view of the Starship’s launch and landing on Sunday.

The mission involved the fifth test flight of the Starship, comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft.

Space

SpaceX just caught a huge rocket booster for the first time. Now what?

Mechazilla catching Starship booster stage.

It was an astonishing spectacle. A 70-meter-tall SpaceX rocket performing a controlled descent toward a tiny target where two giant mechanical arms were waiting to clasp it just meters above the ground.

Sunday’s bold effort was SpaceX’s first try at “catching” the Super Heavy booster, and to many people’s surprise, it nailed it.

Space

NASA’s Crew-8 astronauts will stay in orbit a little longer

crew 8 departure delay gzsvp9baaamitut

NASA and SpaceX's four Crew-8 astronauts will be staying in their temporary home on the International Space Station (ISS) for a little while longer, as their departure has been delayed due to inclement weather. The return of the four crew members to Earth has already been pushed back once and was slated to go ahead today, Sunday, October 13, but the was called off this morning due to adverse weather conditions at the splashdown zone off the coast of Florida.

The four crew members -- NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin -- make up the Crew-8 mission and will return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon. But with the hurricanes and extreme weather conditions affecting Florida recently, NASA officials chose to let the crew members remain in orbit rather than have them try to splash down in potentially difficult conditions.