FLORIDA: A planned launch on Saturday of a mission to take three American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station was scrubbed due to poor weather conditions.
SpaceX announced the delay, with NASA targeting Sunday at 10:53 pm for liftoff. The SpaceX Crew Dragon named Endeavour was set to carry the four astronauts atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Elevated winds forced the delay, marking another setback for the mission initially slated for February 22. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has been providing astronaut launch services for NASA since 2020 under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
The crew, including Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Alexander Grebenkin, and Michael Barratt, will conduct experiments including using stem cells to create organoids for studying degenerative diseases in the microgravity environment of the ISS.
Cooperation between the US and Russia in space remains despite tensions arising from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. NASA is monitoring a small leak on the Russian side of the ISS, with a hatch closed to isolate the issue.
