Monday, February 27, 2023

The Stars My Destination: Crew-6 Scrub

In the wee hours of this morning, 27 February 2023, the launch of the Crew Dragon Endeavour (Dragon C206) from Florida's Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A atop a Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed two minutes before engine ignition (T minus 02:12) due to an issue with the ignitor fluid necessary to ignite the Falcon 9's nine Merlin engines. This scrub is not inherently alarming: spaceflight is difficult, crewed spaceflight even moreso, & scrubbed launches are a part of the process. This was the first scrub of a Crew Dragon launch attempt due to problems with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The initial attempted launch of Demo-2 on 27 May 2020 was scrubbed due to weather conditions, before the successful lauch on 30 May of that baleful year.
Assuming the ignitor issues are resolved, the next lauch attempt will be in the wee hours of Thursday, 2 March.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Launch America
2020
Demo-2 Launch & Demo-2 Splashdown
Crew-1 Launch, Crew-1 Relocation, & Crew-1 Splashdown
2021
Crew-2 Launch & Crew-2 Splashdown
Inspiration4 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-3 Launch & Crew-3 Splashdown
2022
Ax-1 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-4 Launch & Crew-4 Splashdown
Crew-5 Launch

Ad astra per aspera.

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