NASA’s next four-person mission to the International Space Station is now set to blast into the sky on Monday.
The launch of Crew-6 was originally scheduled from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for Sunday, but NASA and SpaceX decided to push the liftoff back by 24 hours to make time for additional checks and balances.
The flight is the sixth crew rotation mission with Elon Musk’s space company to the station, and the seventh flight of SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavor with people as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Dragon Endeavour will be launched by its Falcon 9 rocket, a two-stage rocket used to transport satellites and the spacecraft into orbit.
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Here’s what we know about the scheduled launch:
Crew members
- NASA Astronaut Stephen Bowen
- NASA Astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg
- UAE Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi
- Roscosmos Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev
Pre-launch schedule, launch time, backup launch time
- Feb. 24: All four crew members participated in a countdown launch-day rehearsal.
- Feb. 26: NASA will offer blog coverage of launch-day activities blog and a live launch broadcast on NASA TV or the agency’s website at 9 p.m. ET.
- Feb. 27: Crew-6 is slated to lift off at 1:45 a.m. ET.
- Feb. 28: A backup launch is set for 1:22 a.m. ET.
What are they doing up there? Hopefully, getting a step closer to Mars
According to NASA, Crew-6 members plan to gather new information in experiments that will bring us closer to our goal of landing on Mars, testing microgravity’s effect on flames and immunity, as well as collecting microorganisms from outside the Space Station.
They are among some of the more than200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that NASA reported will take place during their mission.
Crew-6 will spend up to six months at the space station before returning to Earth.
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During their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, Crew-6 will see the arrival of cargo spacecraft including the SpaceX Dragon and the Roscosmos Progress. Crew-6 also is expected to welcome the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts and the Axiom Mission-2 crew during their expedition, according to NASA.
At the conclusion of the mission, NASA said, Dragon Endeavour will autonomously undock with the four crew members aboard, depart the space station and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
After splashdown just off Florida’s coast, a SpaceX recovery vessel will pick up the crew, who will be helicoptered back to shore.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.