Skies surrounding Cape Canaveral did not light up early Monday morning after NASA and SpaceX scrubbed its launch of the Crew-6 astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
The launch, originally scheduled for 1:45 a.m. from complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was called off due to last-minute technical trouble.
The countdown was halted with just two minutes remaining until liftoff. With just a split second to blast off, there was no time to deal with the problem, which involved the engine ignition system.
The next available launch attempt is at 12:34 a.m. Thursday, March 2, pending resolution of the technical issue preventing Monday’s launch.
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"We’ll be sitting here waiting," commander Stephen Bowen assured everyone. "We’re all feeling good."
Bowen is part of a four-astronaut crew that includes one additional NASA astronaut, one Russian cosmonaut, and the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates assigned to a months-long mission, Sultan al-Neyadi. They will replace four space station residents who have been there since October.
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Officials said the problem involved ground equipment used for loading the engine ignition fluid. The launch team could not be sure there was a full load. A SpaceX engineer likened this critical system to spark plugs for a car.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
