SpaceX Crew-6

SpaceX Crew-6 was the sixth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the ninth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 2 March 2023 at 05:34:14 UTC, and it successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 March 2023 at 06:40 UTC. The Crew-6 mission transported four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). Two NASA astronauts, a United Arab Emirates astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut were assigned to the mission. The two NASA astronauts are Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg.^[5] The cosmonaut, Andrey Fedyaev, was reassigned from Soyuz MS-23. Sultan Al Neyadi was the commander of the United Arab Emirates' mission on the flight.

Crew

On 24 March 2022, the European Space Agency announced that Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen would serve as backup pilot.^[6] On 29 April 2022, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and Axiom Space announced that Crew-6 would also include an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.^[7]

MBRSC participation in this mission resulted from a 2021 agreement between NASA and Axiom to fly a NASA astronaut, Mark T. Vande Hei, onboard Soyuz MS-18 (launch) and Soyuz MS-19 (return) in order to ensure a continuing American presence on board the ISS. In return, Axiom received the rights to a NASA owned seat onboard SpaceX Crew-6. Axiom provided the flight opportunity to MBRSC professional crew members through an agreement with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.^[8] Later, the astronaut was confirmed to be Sultan Al Neyadi.^[9]

Andrey Fedyaev was selected in July 2022 for this mission as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions.^[10] This ensures both countries have a presence on the station, and the ability to maintain their separate systems if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period.^[11]

Mission

The sixth SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) was launched on 2 March 2023 and lasted approximately six months. The mission was scheduled to launch early on 27 February 2023. However, the initial attempt was scrubbed and rescheduled for 2 March 2023 at 5:34 am UTC.^[1][2][3] The second launch attempt was successful.

Alongside Crew-6, the Dragon capsule is designed to be able to bring back the Soyuz MS-22 crew if necessary, serving as an emergency evacuation, as was Crew-5. Roscosmos elected to launch Soyuz MS-23 without a crew to return the MS-22 crew instead of using this capability.^[12]

Launch attempt

The first launch attempt was scrubbed at T−02:12 minutes due to an issue with the TEA-TEB spontaneous ignition fluid (times are UTC).^[13]

References

1. ^ Clark, Stephen (13 January 2023). "Launch Schedule". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
2. ^ Cawley, James (27 February 2023). "NASA, SpaceX Look to March 2 for Next Available Crew-6 Launch Attempt". NASA. Retrieved 27 February 2023. ... NASA and SpaceX will forgo a launch opportunity on Tuesday, Feb. 28, due to unfavorable weather forecast conditions. The next available launch attempt is at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, March 2, pending resolution of the technical issue preventing Monday's launch. ...
3. ^ Wall, Mike (27 February 2023). "SpaceX scrubs Crew-6 astronaut launch due to ignition-fluid issue". Space.com. Retrieved 27 February 2023. ... The next launch opportunity comes on Thursday (March 2) at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT); weather on Tuesday (Feb. 28), the first possible opportunity before that, is not favorable for launch ...
4. ^ McDowell, Jonathan (25 September 2023). "Jonathan's Space Report No. 824". Retrieved 25 October 2024.
5. ^ Potter, Sean (16 December 2021). "Two Astronauts Receive Assignments for NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 Mission". NASA. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
6. ^ Human Spaceflight (24 March 2022). "@YannickJungman3 @Astro_Andreas @Space_Station @SpaceX @esa @UFM_MIN @DTUtweet @AschbacherJosef Pilot for Crew-7, and backup pilot for Crew-6. More in the article here: https://t.co/LZhraeIRA7". No. 1506922535010684929. Archived 15 October 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
7. ^ "Emirati astronaut set for six-month mission to International Space Station". 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
8. ^ "Axiom Space and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center Sign Agreement for UAE Astronaut to Fly on the ISS in 2023". 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
9. ^ "UAE's Sultan Al Neyadi to be first Arab astronaut to spend 6 months on ISS". 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
10. ^ Wattles, Jackie & Pavlova, Uliana (15 July 2022). "SpaceX rockets to fly Russian cosmonauts with new NASA deal". CNN.com. CNN. Retrieved 16 July 2022. Andrei Fedyaev will fly on another SpaceX mission in the spring of 2023, according to NASA.
11. ^ "Rogozin says Crew Dragon safe for Russian cosmonauts". SpaceNews. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
12. ^ Expedition 68 NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 Leaders Discuss Mission - Jan. 25, 2023. NASA Video. 25 January 2023. Archived 14 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 25 March 2023. – via YouTube
13. ^ "Shortly before liftoff, SpaceX cancels a crew launch due to igniter issues – Ars Technica". 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.