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NASA and SpaceX scrub Friday early morning crew launch from Kennedy Space Center

An image of SpaceX's Crew-7 rocket at the pad
Brandon Moser
/
WMFE
SpaceX's Crew-7 mission stands ready for launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center

NASA and SpaceX are calling off Friday's early morning launch attempt of the Crew-7 mission, slated to transport four passengers to the International Space Station.

Teams are taking additional time to review the Dragon capsule's environmental and life support systems. During this review, NASA said the rocket and spacecraft remain healthy and the crew is ready to fly when the team is ready.

The launch, which was scheduled for Friday at 3:50 a.m. will now shift at least one day, with a new target launch of no earlier than Saturday at 3:27 a.m. Weather for the backup date is very good — with a 95% chance of favorable conditions for launch.

Once launched, it will take the crew about 22 hours to reach the station. Crew-7 will be a six-month mission where the participants will live and work on the station, performing science experiments and maintenance of the orbiting lab.

The crew will make the trip in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. This spacecraft has already made two trips to the station and back.

Crew-7 will be the eleventh time that SpaceX has launched humans into orbit. It’s commanded by NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli and it's her first time traveling into space. Moghbeli is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and has a total of 2,000 hours flight time in more than 25 different aircraft.

Piloting the mission is European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen along with mission specialists Satoshi Furukawa from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian's Roscosmo cosmonaut Konstatantin Borisov.

One the crew completes its mission, Crew-7 will return to Earth splashing down off the coast of Florida.

Updated: August 25, 2023 at 9:03 AM EDT
This story was updated on Friday, August 25 at 9:02 a.m. with additional details from NASA about the reason for the scrub,
Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."
Marian is a multimedia journalist at Central Florida Public Media working as a reporter and producer for the 'Are We There Yet?' space podcast.
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