 A new crew of astronauts was sent into space by Space X and NASA for a six-month mission to the International Space Station.
At 12:34 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Thursday, the mission, which is carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
After reaching orbit, the astronaut-carrying Crew Dragon separated from the rocket. It is anticipated that it will spend approximately one day maneuvering through space before connecting with the space station. Friday morning at 1:17 a.m. EDT, the capsule is scheduled to dock. Monday’s first attempt at launch was halted due to what officials claimed was a clogged filter.
Officials had reported that ground systems engineers decided to cancel the launch with less than three minutes left on the clock during the launch broadcast. Triethylaluminum triethylboron, or TEA-TEB, a highly combustible fluid that is used to ignite the Falcon 9 rocket’s engines during liftoff, had an issue, according to the engineers.
NASA reported that a clogged ground filter caused a reduced flow of fluid back to the ground TEA-TEB catch tank,Astronaut.
Yes, that’s correct. The reduced flow of fluid was caused by a clogged ground filter during the “bleed-in” procedure, which is intended to ensure that each engine of the Falcon 9 rocket receives sufficient TEA-TEB fluid during ignition. This issue was identified after NASA and SpaceX conducted a thorough review of the data and ground system. SpaceX’s director of crew mission management, Benji Reed, stated that the clogged filter may have prevented the rocket from taking off, but they lacked sufficient data during the countdown to be certain. Fortunately, the TEA-TEB system performed well during the launch, although engineers had to fix at least one problem after takeoff.
The problem occurred during the “bleed-in” procedure, which is intended to guarantee that each of the nine engines of the Falcon 9 rocket will receive sufficient TEA-TEB fluid when ignition time arrives. “After a thorough review of the data and ground system, NASA and SpaceX determined there was a reduced flow back to the ground TEA-TEB catch tank due to a clogged ground filter,” according to an update from NASA posted to its website early Wednesday. The issue arose as the fluid moved from a holding tank on the ground into a “catch tank.”
NASA stated that the abnormal data engineers had observed on launch day was explained by the clogged filter.
SpaceX’s director of crew mission management, Benji Reed, stated that data reviews revealed that the clogged filter probably prevented the rocket from taking off, but flight controllers lacked sufficient data during the countdown to be certain.
“That’s not how we want to launch people,” Reed said at a news conference on Thursday following the launch. We want people to be certain that everything will be okay.
Officials said that the TEA-TEB system performed well on Thursday, though engineers had to fix at least one problem after takeoff.
One of the six hooks that hold the Crew Dragon’s nose cone, a cap on top of the spacecraft that protects the ISS docking hardware during launch, developed an issue. However, the Crew Dragon was able to open the nose cone with a backup system.
The hook is also used to secure the spacecraft to its docking port when it latches on to the ISS. However, Reed stated that there are additional sensors that can provide data, so the sensor shouldn’t be a problem. They are anticipated to spend up to six months operating the two-decade-old station and conducting scientific experiments aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The mission takes place at a time when the astronauts who are currently stationed on the space station are dealing with a different transportation issue. A coolant leak occurred in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December that had been carrying NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to the space station. Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, launched a replacement vehicle on February 23 after the capsule was deemed unsafe for the astronauts’ return. On Saturday, it made its way to the space station.
The Crew-6 astronauts will be in charge of more than 200 science and technology projects while they are in space. Some of these projects include studying microbial samples that will be collected from the outside of the space station and studying how some substances burn in a microgravity environment. During their time on the space station, the crew will host two additional important missions.
The first is the Boeing Crew Flight Test, which will be the inaugural NASA-Boeing astronaut mission. The flight, scheduled for April, will take NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to the space station. It is the final stage of a testing and demonstration program that Boeing needs to complete in order to get its Starliner spacecraft certified for regular astronaut missions.
Then, in May, a group of four astronauts will make their way to the space station on Axiom Mission 2, or AX-2 for short. This is a privately funded mission. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who is currently a private astronaut with the Texas-based space company Axiom, which brokered and organized the mission, will serve as the commander of that initiative, which will deploy a separate SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
Similar to Axiom Mission 1, which visited the space station in April 2022 and included the first Saudi Arabian astronauts, it will also have three paying customers. The Saudi Arabian Kingdom paid for their seats.
