Crew-6 Mission Postponed by 24 Hours
During a media teleconference Tuesday, Feb. 21, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA provided an update to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, is now slated for Monday, Feb. 27, at 1:45 a.m. EST. Live launch-day coverage on NASA TV and the agency’s website begins at 10 p.m. EST. Sunday, Feb. 26.
Managers from NASA and SpaceX, along with international partners, met throughout the day Tuesday as part of the mission’s Flight Readiness Review (FRR) in preparation for the sixth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the microgravity laboratory. The FRR focused on the preparedness of SpaceX’s crew transportation system, the space station, and its international partners to support the flight, as well as the certification of flight readiness.
The Crew-6 mission launch will carry two NASA astronauts, Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who will serve as mission specialists, to the space station for a science expedition mission. They will fly aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour, carried by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Crew-6 Mission Begins a 6-Month Stay on the Station
Crew-6 will spend up to six months at the space station before returning to Earth. The mission marks the fourth spaceflight for Bowen, who flew space shuttle missions STS-126 in 2008, STS-132 in 2010, and STS-133 in 2011. Crew-6 will be the first spaceflight for Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev.
No specific reason for the delay was given by the agency.
The Crew-6 mission astronauts arrived at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility at approximately 12:20 p.m. Tuesday after departing Ellington Field near the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Meanwhile aboard the station, the Expedition 68 crew members began the week exploring what microgravity is doing to their bodies and ways to offset those effects. The International Space Station’s residents also inspected BEAM, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, as a pair of crew ships prepare to blast off to the orbital outpost.
(Source: NASA. Images provided and from file)