SpaceX and NASA have stood down from Wednesday’s 7:48 p.m. launch attempt of Crew-10 to the International Space Station (ISS) due to a technical issue on the ground.
With the four crew members strapped into their seats inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, the countdown clock was stopped at 7:06 p.m. ET, and at the same time the call was made to scrub the launch attempt.
Commentators on the livestream said the problem centered on the hydraulic system that controls a clamp arm that links the rocket to the launch tower.
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The issue actually surfaced four hours before liftoff, with SpaceX engineers saying they were trying to resolve it. However, with about 40 minutes to go and with the issue still outstanding, it was decided to halt proceedings for the day.
The next launch opportunity is at 7:26 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 13, provided the issue is able to be resolved.
Commenting on the scrub during the livestream, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who flew to the space station in 2019, said: “Flexibility is really the key to everything we do as astronauts. We know that the plan is always changing and launch scrubs are definitely a reality that we have seen happen over and over again.”
Meir added: “We’re ready for this, this is what we train for. We know that at the end of the day you may be lifting off, you may not be. It’s definitely a bummer for everyone involved but we will again do as we’re trained and get ready for that next opportunity.”
The four Crew-10 astronauts — NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov — will now return to crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center and await confirmation of a new launch time, which could be as soon as Thursday.
