After one failed attempt, the launch of NASA’s Crew-6 mission by SpaceX from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A is scheduled to take place at 12:34 am (E.S.T) on Thursday, March 2. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will take off from the Launch complex 39A. The space mission will carry two international astronauts to the International Space Station. The launch team called the effort off less than 2.5 minutes before T-0 on February 27, citing a ground-system issue.
That issue could not be resolved instantaneously in the time ahead of the instantaneous launch window at 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT) on Monday, leading to the scrub
The mission management teams of SpaceX are currently meeting to review the launch readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. They will also check the weather conditions before the launch.
Officials of the 45th Weather Squadron at the Kennedy Space Centre predict that the weather conditions will be 95 per cent favorable for the launch of the Crew-6 mission. However, they noted that the flight through rain is the main weather concern. The teams will also have to check the conditions of the Dragon’s ascent corridor.
Docking to space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module will start at 1.17 am (EST) and the launch will take place at 2.34 am (EST)
The mission of the Crew-6 will feature the flight of Stephen Bowen, a NASA astronaut, and Warren Hoburg, a pilot from the United States. They will join the crew of the International Space station for a mission that will carry out scientific research. The trip will mark the fourth spaceflight for Bowen and the first for Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev.
It will be the sixth mission for SpaceX and the ninth for NASA’s commercial crew program. This will be the fourth crewed mission for the company to the ISS. The previous three missions were conducted by the Endeavour capsule. In 2020, the Demo-2 flight was also launched.