After NASA and SpaceX scrubbed the Crew-6 launch just minutes before liftoff early Monday morning, officials announced they would target Thursday for the next launch effort.
The team halted Monday’s launch attempt at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when it suddenly encountered an issue with ground systems that affected the loading of ignition fluids for the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry astronauts to International Space. Station (ISS) inside. the Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule.
They now aim to launch the crew at 12:34 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 2 (9:34 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1).
Traveling aboard Crew Dragon as part of Crew-6 were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Following in the footsteps of many international astronauts who have traveled to the ISS over the past two decades, they will spend about six months aboard the orbital outpost, living and working in microgravity conditions.
Much of their time will be spent conducting carefully designed science experiments, including a fascinating endeavor that will involve collecting samples of bacteria and fungi from the outer surface of the space station.
The experiment will examine whether microbes exist around parts of the station such as vents in its life support system, and try to determine how quickly they can survive and if they can spread. This should help the planners of future crewed missions to deep space to better understand the potential dangers of human contamination of environments.
The crew will also perform spacewalks for station upgrades and maintenance.
When the Crew-6 mission begins early Thursday morning ET, its launch will be streamed live by NASA on its YouTube channel. The docking procedure and welcome to the space station will also be broadcast when it takes place about 24 hours later.
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