NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station is targeted to launch no earlier than 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, March 2, from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will be from Launch Complex 39A.
Mission management teams are meeting late Tuesday to review launch readiness and assess weather conditions at the launch site and along Dragon’s planned flight path; an update will be shared after the reviews.
Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron continue to predict a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for Crew-6 launch, with the flight through precipitation rule serving as the primary weather concern. Teams also need to evaluate conditions along the Dragon ascent corridor, which is a watch item for Thursday’s attempt.
Updated mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Wednesday, March 1
9 p.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins
Thursday, March 2
12:34 a.m. – Launch
2:30 a.m. (approximately) – Postlaunch news conference on NASA TV
11:30 p.m. – NASA TV arrival coverage begins
Friday, March 3
1:17 a.m. – Docking to space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module
2:55 a.m. – Hatch opening
3:40 a.m. – Welcome ceremony
Crew-6 will carry two NASA astronauts, Mission Commander Stephen Bowen and Pilot Warren Hoburg, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who will serve as mission specialists, to the space station for a science expedition mission. The trip will mark the fourth spaceflight for Bowen and the first for Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev.
On launch day, follow along on the blog or tune in to the live broadcast on NASA Television and the agency’s website. More details about the mission can be found on the Crew-6 blog, in the press kit online and by following the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew and commercial crew on Facebook.
Learn more about commercial crew and space station activities by following @Commercial_Crew, @space_station, and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the Commercial Crew Facebook, ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.