A fresh crew of astronauts was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and NASA, a week after the launch was delayed due to a problem with the ground system.
The crew, including two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, is expected to reach the ISS outpost early Friday to begin a six-month stay, as per the report. The mission was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:34 a.m. ET today.
The report said that after reaching the ISS, a laboratory outpost orbiting about 420 kms above Earth, the vehicle carrying the astronauts separated from the rocket.It is anticipated that it would spend about a day navigating through space before connecting with the space station. The capsule is expected to dock on Friday at 1:17 a.m. ET.
The first launch attempt of the mission, known as Crew 6, was aborted on Monday due to what the authorities claimed was a clogged filter. An update from NASA published on its website early on Wednesday read, “Following a thorough review of the data and of the ground system, NASA and SpaceX found there was a reduced flow back to the ground TEA-TEB catch tank due to a blocked ground filter.”According to NASA, as cited by CNN, the clogged filter explains the unusual data that engineers saw on launch day.