USA: The launch of Crew-6, the crewed mission to the International Space Station, has been postponed by NASA and SpaceX. The four-astronaut mission, which will now launch on February 27, will take them to the space station.

The launch was earlier scheduled for February 26. After a thorough flight readiness review on 21 February, it was decided to delay the launch of Crew-6. The NASA-appointed Crew-6 mission will be SpaceX's sixth astronaut launch to the ISS.

In addition to the six missions, the business has already launched two other crewed missions to the space station, including Demo-2 (Axion Mission 1) in April 2022 and a test flight for NASA called Demo-2 in 2020. The X-1 was a privately funded mission operated by Houston-based Axiom Space.

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On February 27, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will blast off at 1:45am EST (12:15pm IST) along with Crew-6's Dragon capsule Endeavour. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will serve as the mission's launch pad.

Two NASA astronauts, Stephen Bowen (mission commander) and Warren Hoberg (pilot), a UAE astronaut, Sultan Alnedi, and a Roscosmos cosmonaut, Andrey Fedyaev, constitute the four-person crew. Alanedi and Fedyaev will participate as mission specialists.

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The crew of the Crew-6 mission will remain on the space station for six months before returning to Earth.

Bowen has previously flown on three Space Shuttle missions, including STS-126 in 2008, STS-132 in 2010, and STS-133 in 2011. This mission will be his fourth space flight. The first space mission for the other crew members, Hoberg, Alanedi and Fedyaev, would be Crew-6.

The FRR, which was held on February 21, was focused on ensuring that SpaceX's crew transportation system, the space station and its international partners are capable of supporting the flight as well as certifying flight readiness, according to NASA. were ready for

The launch delay could cause teams to work on some minor issues with the Endeavor capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.

The team plans to further investigate the thermal performance of the "pod panels" covering Endeavour's exterior, according to Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

They will also test the liquid oxygen tanks of the Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) of the Falcon 9 rocket. Once the task is complete, the mission will be given the all-clear for takeoff.

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Currently, the ISS is home to the Crew-5 mission. NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and astronaut Anna Kikina make up the crew.

The four astronauts are expected to return to Earth about five days after welcoming the crew members of the Crew-6 mission.