MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – The Crew-6 mission successfully launched after readiness reviews showed clean launch systems and favorable weather chances for an early Thursday endeavor to send four more astronauts to the International Space Station.
After scrubbing a launch attempt early Monday with just two minutes left in the countdown due to strange readings from the Falcon 9′s ignition fluid loop, Crew-6 mission teams found that a clogged filter was restricting flow from the rocket to a catch tank on the ground at Kennedy Space Center, according to NASA’s blog.
SpaceX teams later replaced the clogged filter and purged the ignition fluid line, verifying its launch readiness, the post reads.
According to the 45th Weather Squadron, mission managers worked with a 95% chance of favorable weather at launch time — 12:34 a.m. Thursday — to take NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev to the ISS in a Dragon spacecraft.
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Those four had to wait hours after their launch attempt Monday to disembark the rocket as its fuel was drained. Their eventual trip into space was estimated at some 24.5 hours.
If all goes according to plan, hatch opening is set for 3:27 a.m. Friday, according to NASA, with a broadcast of launch coverage set to begin at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
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