- The mission’s future launch date is on March 2, Thursday, at 12:34 am EST.
- In a mission update, SpaceX stated that Crew-6 and the spacecraft are both in good condition.
According to an official source, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch to the International Space Station was postponed due to issues with ground systems. The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission will carry two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to travel to space. The mission was scheduled to launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:45 am EST Monday. But the launch was paused only two minutes left before the take-off.
NASA announced on Twitter that today’s Crew6 launch had been postponed because of a problem with the ground systems. Soon after, SpaceX announced that the spaceship had started removing fuel from the rocket and that the launch would be postponed.
Andrey Fedyaev of Russia, Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg of NASA, and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates will spend six months on the station.
Mr. Neyadi Coomented that the planned mission was a huge honor. Mr. Neyadi, 41, will fly as the second astronaut from the oil-rich UAE and the fourth astronaut from an Arab nation, followed by Hazzaa al-Mansoori flew on an eight-day trip in 2019. However, NASA’S pilot Hoburg and the Russian expert Fedyaev will go into space for the first time. Although, Fedyaev is the second Russian astronaut to launch on a SpaceX rocket and reach the ISS.
Russian Soyuz spacecraft carry NASA astronauts to the station regularly. Since the Russian and Ukraine wars were rough between USA and Russia, the collaboration has remained the same. The scientist said that notwithstanding these conflicts, the collaborations would be continued.
According to Bowen, a veteran of three shuttle flights, Politics hardly ever come up in orbit. Every one of us is a professional. We are committed to the task at hand. Until we went there, we always had a terrific relationship with cosmonauts.
During the mission at ISS, The Crew-6 astronauts will conduct investigations, including the functions of the heart, brain, and cartilage, as well as the technique at which materials burn in microgravity. The present crew is the sixth to travel to the ISS using a rocket. The Endeavour capsule has made three trips. For six months, NASA accompanied SpaceX in carrying astronauts to the ISS.
According to the agency, the four members of Crew-5 have been on board the ISS since October. It will take over to Crew-6 after a handover period of several days. Afterward, Crew-5 will fly back to the planet.
Rescue capsule
Together with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, the ISS is also home to cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev. They were supposed to return to Earth on March 28 but were delayed when a tiny meteoroid struck their Soyuz MS-22 capsule’s cooling system in December. While it was docked with the International Station. The three astronauts will be brought back to Earth by the unmanned Russian Soyuz MS-23. They will be back on Earth in September.
After the Cold War in competition, US-Russian cooperation expanded, and construction of the ISS started in 1998. Since the 1960s, Russia has launched astronauts using the esteemed but aged Soyuz. Yet, many issues have plagued Russia’s program in recent years, destroying numerous satellites.
