UAE astronaut’s 6-month space mission: Why was liftoff delayed?

UAE astronaut’s 6-month space mission: Why was liftoff delayed?

SpaceX has removed the propellant from the Falcon 9 rocket and the four astronauts, including Sultan AlNeyadi, have safely exited the rocket

Published: Mon 27 Feb 2023, 1:44 PM

The launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) was scrubbed at just over two minutes to go before SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was due to launch, on February 27, Monday, apparently due to an issue with the ignition system.

SpaceX on its Twitter account posted, “Standing down from tonight's launch of Crew-6 due to a TEA-TEB ground system issue. Both Crew-6 and the vehicles are healthy and propellant offload has begun ahead of the crew disembarking Dragon.”

SpaceX has removed the propellant from the Falcon 9 rocket and the four astronauts - UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, American astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, and Russian astronaut Andrey Fedyaev - have safely exited the rocket. Both the Falcon 9 and Dragon are in a "safe configuration".

Nasa and SpaceX will forgo a launch opportunity on Tuesday, February 28, due to "unfavourable weather forecast conditions".

The next available launch attempt is on Thursday, March 2, "pending resolution of the technical issue preventing Monday’s