SpaceX Rocket Launch Canceled Just 2 Minutes Before Liftoff

Anna Lazarus Caplan
·1 min read
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft sits on launch pad 39A after its launch was scrubbed due to technical issues with the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on February 27, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts were scheduled to lift off on Monday at 1:45am on a mission to the International Space Station.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft sits on launch pad 39A after its launch was scrubbed due to technical issues with the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on February 27, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts were scheduled to lift off on Monday at 1:45am on a mission to the International Space Station.

Joe Raedle/Getty

SpaceX's latest mission has been scrubbed.

The Falcon rocket launch, carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to be assigned to such a voyage, was headed to the International Space Station for a monthslong mission.

"Standing down from tonight's launch of Crew-6 due to a TEA-TEB ground system issue," SpaceX tweeted early Monday morning. "Both Crew-6 and the vehicles are healthy and propellant offload has begun ahead of the crew disembarking Dragon."

An issue with the engine ignition system was determined to be the cause of the failure, reported the Associated Press, which cited a SpaceX engineer who said the problem involved the ignition fluid which acts like the "spark plugs for a car."

The mission was canceled just two minutes before liftoff and crew members had to sit in the capsule for around an hour as the fluid was drained from the rocket before it was safe to disembark, added the AP.

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Crew-6 members (L-R) Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Warren Hoburg, Sultan Al Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates, and NASA astronaut Mission Commander Stephen Bowen walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building before riding to pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew-6 mission on February 26, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States. The crew will launch on the Crew Dragon spacecraft for a six-month expedition to the International Space Station at 1:45 a.m. EST tomorrow.

Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty

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"We'll be sitting here waiting," commander Stephen Bowen said at the time. "We're all feeling good."

With adverse weather conditions forecast for parts of the U.S. East Coast in the next couple of days, the space agency said it was "targeting no earlier than Thursday, March 2 at 12:34 a.m. ET" for the next launch attempt.

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The team of astronauts are replacing four others who have been on the space station since October.