Nasa, SpaceX postpone launch of next space station crew at 11th hour

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and SpaceX early on Monday postponed the launch of two American astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates crewmate minutes before they were due to lift off from Florida on a flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

The United States space agency and SpaceX, the private rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, cited a technical glitch concerning the flow of ignition fluid used to help start the spacecraft’s engines.

“Mission teams decided to stand down to investigate an issue preventing data from confirming a full load of the ignition source for the Falcon 9 first stage Merlin engines,” Nasa said in a statement.

The countdown seemed to be progressing smoothly until about 2½ minutes before blast-off, when Nasa announced on its live webcast that the launch of the four crew members on a six-month science mission would be postponed.

The next launch opportunity will be March 2, Nasa said.

“Human spaceflight is an inherently risky endeavour and, as always, we will fly when we are ready,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule was scheduled for lift-off at 1.45am EST (2.45pm Singapore time) from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The first backup launch opportunity for the mission was set for early on Tuesday, about 24 hours from the initial attempt to get the rocket off the ground.

Had Monday’s launch been a success, it was expected to take the crew about 25 hours to reach their destination at the ISS, a laboratory orbiting about 420km above Earth.

Designated Crew 6, the mission will carry the sixth long-duration ISS team that Nasa has flown aboard SpaceX since Mr Musk’s California-based company began sending American astronauts to orbit in May 2020. REUTERS