NASA And SpaceX Forced To Cancel Launch Of Crew-6 Mission To ISS In The Last Minute, Why?

JAKARTA - NASA and SpaceX were forced to cancel launching four astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) because technical problems occurred at the last minute.

Astronauts who are members of the mission nicknamed Crew-6 include mission commander Stephen Bowen (59), Warren 'Woody' Hoburg (37), UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi (41) and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (41).

The Crew-6 mission rode SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule scheduled to take off at 6:45 GMT from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

NASA and @SpaceX teams are targeting Thursday, March 2, at 12:34am ET (0534 UTC) for the next launch attempt of the #Crew6 mission. Follow @Commercial_Crew and our blog for updates: https://t.co/9X0qaBNLFm pic.twitter.com/0EDhUtTIax

— NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2023

Apparently, as the countdown runs smoothly for about two and a half minutes before launch, NASA later announced in a live broadcast that the launch of four crew members on a six-month science mission would be postponed.

Both NASA and SpaceX said the result of the delay was due to a technical error related to the reactive fluid used to power the spacecraft engine.

The liquid or chemical is known as triethylene and has taken a triethylboron, or TA-TEB, which reacts with liquid oxygen to rotate nine machines in the first phase of Falcon 9.

The launch of the first reserve for the mission will reportedly be set on Thursday, March 2, as quoted from Metro, Tuesday, February 28.

If yesterday's launch is successful, it will take them about 25 hours to reach the ISS. The four astronauts will spend six months researching.

The astronauts will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations on the ISS. In addition, they will also monitor how the stress trigger for spaceflight affects the immune function.

By understanding this, scientists can develop better countermeasures against the causes of stress.

They will also be greeted by seven residents of the ISS upon arrival there, namely three members of the US NASA crew, including commander Nicole Aunapu Mann. Mann was the first American native to fly into space, along with three Russian and Japanese astronauts.

For your information, this is the first manned launch in 2023 and will increase the total number of people who have been to space to 657 people.