SpaceX Dragon crew to blast off for ISS

SpaceX Dragon crew to blast off for ISS

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is to make a second attempt on Thursday to blast off for the International Space Station carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space.

The launch of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission was scrubbed Monday just minutes before liftoff because of a clog in a filter that supplies ignition fluid to start the rocket engines.

SpaceX engineers replaced the filter and the launch is now scheduled for 12:34 am (0534 GMT) Thursday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said.

Weather conditions are "95 percent" favorable for the flight, NASA said Wednesday.

The Dragon crew capsule, dubbed Endeavour, is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 1:17 am (0617 GMT) on Friday after a 24-hour voyage.

NASA's Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia's Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates are to spend six months on the orbiting station.

Neyadi, 41, will be the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second from the oil-rich UAE to journey to space; his compatriot Hazzaa al-Mansoori flew an eight-day mission in 2019.

Neyadi, Hoburg, the Endeavour pilot, and Fedyaev, the Russian mission specialist, will all