Washington: A joint SpaceX and NASA mission to deliver crew to the International Space Station (ISS) was canceled ahead of launch, due to issues with the ignition system. The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket was just minutes away.
The Crew-6 mission was scheduled to depart for the ISS on Monday, but the launch was postponed, although all astronauts were already aboard the Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. Ignition issues with the first stage Merlin engine were cited by the space agency.
According to SpaceX systems engineer Kate Tice, who was speaking during the webcast of the launch event, the decision to cancel and postpone the mission was made "out of an abundance of caution".
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NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoberg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are all members of the aptly named Crew-6.
On NASA's official blog, Administrator Bill Nelson expressed his appreciation for the crew's "attention and dedication to keeping Crew-6 safe".
Human space flight is a dangerous endeavor, he continued, and we will launch only when we are ready to do so. Launching the next day was considered, but was ultimately rejected due to bad weather. March 2 has been designated as the new mission date.
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Since 2020, the US government's NASA has collaborated with SpaceX, the private firm of billionaire businessman Elon Musk. There were several highly publicized accidents involving the Falcon 9 rocket of the business during test launches in 2012 and 2016.
The presence of a cosmonaut on the SpaceX crew shows that space exploration is still one of the few areas in which the US and Russia work together. Despite hostilities between Washington and Moscow, NASA and Roscosmos continue to cooperate on ISS maintenance.
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The Russian Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft entered orbit on Sunday to provide a means of return later in September for cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as US astronaut Francisco Rubio.