A Ground System Issue Has Forced Nasa And Spacex To Scrap The Crew-6 Launch To The International Space Station

A ground system problem caused the Elon Musk-led SpaceX to cancel its attempt to launch Crew-6 to the International Space Station, or the ISS, on Monday.

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NASA and SpaceX scrubbed Monday's attempt to launch the agency's SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station due to a ground system issue that was discovered, according to a joint statement released by the companies.

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In the case of the Falcon-9 first-stage Merlin engines, there was an issue that prevented the mission team from confirming a full load of ignition sources for those engines, so the launch had to be postponed.

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As soon as the propellant was removed from Falcon-9, the astronauts exited the Dragon spacecraft and returned to Earth. The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are operating in a safe configuration, according to NASA.

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It has also been announced that NASA and SpaceX will also not be launching on Feb. 28, citing unfavorable weather forecasts.

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The technical issue that prevented the launch has been resolved, so the next launch attempt window will be 12:34 a.m. (EST) on March 2, NASA has confirmed.

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Due to TEA-TEB ground system issues, Crew-6 will not launch tonight. Crew-6 and the vehicles are both healthy, and propellant offload has begun prior to the crew disembarking Dragon, SpaceX tweeted.