It’s a Scrub for Crew-10’s Launch Tonight

The international crew of Crew-10 almost made it into space tonight, but the launch was scrubbed less than an hour before liftoff because of a ground-side hydraulic issue. Another attempt was possible tomorrow, but the weather is forecast to be unfavorable so SpaceX and NASA will wait until Friday at 7:03 pm ET to try again.

Today the rocket was ready, the spacecraft was fine, the weather was great, and the crew eager to go, but something went awry with a clamp arm on the transporter erector to which the rocket is attached until close to liftoff.

The issue was identified about 4 hours before the scheduled launch at 7:48 pm ET, but SpaceX and NASA hoped it could be resolved in time for launch. At about 7:05 pm ET, however, the crew was notified the launch was scrubbed.

Commander Anne McClain (NASA), Pilot Nichole Ayers (NASA), and Mission Specialists Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos) seemed to take the news in stride as they prepared to exit the spacecraft.

At 10:30 pm ET, NASA said they would wait until Friday to try again because of poor weather tomorrow. Launch time on Friday is 7:03 pm ET.  If the launch goes then, the crew will dock at the ISS on Saturday, March 15, at 11:30 pm ET.

SpaceX’s transporter erector moves the rocket to the launch pad and raises it into a vertical position. The clamp arms holding the rocket in place must fully open before the rocket lifts off.

When they do launch, Crew-10 will travel to the International Space Station and replace Crew-9: NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who arrived on the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test in June, and NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’s Aleksandr Gorbunov who arrived in September.

If the launch is on Friday, Crew-9 will return to Earth on March 19 after a several-day handover, weather permitting.

Butch and Suni’s return to Earth was delayed several months because NASA was not convinced Starliner was safe enough to bring them home after the spacecraft experienced propulsion failures prior to docking. NASA decided to keep them on the ISS as part of the next regular crew rotation mission, Crew-9, which launched in September and was due to return in February. That turned Butch and Suni’s 8-day mission into an 8-month mission.

Crew-9’s return then was extended to March because Crew-10’s launch was delayed. Crew-10 was supposed to fly on a brand new Crew Dragon, but it is not ready yet. NASA and SpaceX decided to swap capsules and use an existing Crew Dragon, Endurance, rather than waiting for the new one to be ready.

Crew-9 is using Crew Dragon Freedom to come home.  Freedom has been docked at the ISS since September. Crew-9 could return to Earth at any time, but they are waiting for their replacements on Crew-10 to arrive.

 

This article has been updated.