NASA and SpaceX called off Monday’s launch intended to take the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station following a last-minute technical issue with Falcon 9’s engine ignition system.
Providing the issue is resolved, the teams will attempt another launch at 12:34AM ET on Thursday, March 2nd.
SpaceX apparently didn’t submit launch collision analysis trajectory data seven days prior to the Starlink Group 4-27 mission’s launch on August 19th, 2022, and the FAA has proposed a $175,000 civil penalty over the matter.
The FAA writes, “Launch collision analysis trajectory data is used to assess the probability of the launch vehicle colliding with one of the thousands of tracked objects orbiting the Earth.” The company has 30 days to respond.
Elon Musk says that only 31 of the 33 engines on SpaceX’s Starship booster actually fired, but the static fire test was still a thing to behold. Despite that, the test went really well otherwise according to the people over at the NASA Spaceflight channel, paving the way towards the ship actually launching.
They should start playing replays soon, so tune in if you want to see some flames.
During an event on Wednesday, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company would attempt a 33-engine static fire test today.
Naturally, the folks at NASA Spaceflight have their cameras trained on the test stand in Rocketland / Boca Chica, TX, and the livestream has caught signs that the time of the test is approaching soon.
According to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, it will happen this year. The company seems to be doing well even though CEO Elon Musk has been distracted by Twitter.
