At 13:34 Beijing time on March 2, 2023 (the same as Beijing time), the Falcon 9 V1.2 Block 5 carrier rocket carrying the Crew-6 Dragon manned spacecraft will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LC-39A station (Launch Complex 39A) and will go to the International Space Station using a one-day rendezvous and docking program.
Crew-6 is the sixth official manned flight by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The mission used the Endeavour Dragon manned spacecraft, which had previously flown three manned missions, including NASA SpaceX's Demo-2, Crew-2 and Axiom-1.
Andrei Fedyaev, Warren Hoborg, Stephen Bowen, Sultan Arneyadi
During the trip, the Crew-6 Dragon manned spacecraft carried four astronauts from three countries, including NASA astronaut and mission commander Stephen Bowen and astronaut and pilot Warren Bowen. Warren "Woody" Hoburg, as well as UAE astronaut and mission specialist Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos astronaut and mission expert Andrey Fedyaev. The mission was Bowen's 4th spaceflight and the first spaceflight of Hoburg, Arneyadi and Fedyaev.
At 14:17 on March 3, the Crew-6 Dragon spacecraft docked with the Harmony module, at 16:27, the hatch will open, and at 16:40, the 7 astronauts of the 68th Expedition will hold a welcome ceremony for the 4 astronauts of the Crew-6 crew. As a member of the 69th Expedition Team of the International Space Station, the Crew-6 crew will replace the 68th Crew Crew-5 in space residency missions, carry out the first on-orbit rotation of the world's space crew this year, and the crew will support space science experiments and technical experiments, and manage and maintain the space station.
The launch was originally scheduled for the afternoon of February 27, but the mission team abandoned the launch attempt due to anomalies in the ground ignition fluid supply system. The exception comes from a digital signature that confirms the correct injection of the launch platform's triethylaluminum, triethylboron (TEA-TEB) liquid. TEA-TEB is an ignition fluid used to start the core stage of the Falcon 9 9 Merlin liquid oxygen kerosene engines. The injection process ensures that each engine has an adequate supply of ignition fluid to mix with liquid oxygen to start the engine. During the pre-launch phase, TEA-TEB ignition fluid from the ground supply tank flows to the rocket interface and then returns to the catch tank to remove the gas from the surface pipes. During engine starting, ignition fluid flows to the engine for ignition. The flow rate into the collection tank is one of several parameters used to determine if the ignition fluid is injected correctly into the system.
After a thorough review of the data and ground systems, NASA and SpaceX determined that there was a reduction in flow back to the ground-based TEA-TEB collection tank due to clogged ground filters. Filter clogging fully explains the characteristics observed during the launch attempt. The SpaceX team replaced the filter, purged the TEA-TEB line with nitrogen, and verified that the line was clean enough to launch.
On February 28, NASA completed a launch readiness review, weather briefing, and mission management meeting, and the Crew-6 Dragon spacecraft was eligible for release. Weather officials at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) predict a 95 percent chance of launching favorable weather conditions, precipitation is a major impediment to flight, and weather conditions on the Dragon's upward passage are acceptable, but remains to be seen.
The Falcon 9 is a large two-stage cryogenic liquid launch vehicle, with the main force all using liquid oxygen kerosene propellant, with a core stage diameter of 3.7 meters and a fairing diameter of 5.2 meters. The arrow is 70 meters long, has a takeoff mass of about 549 tons, a takeoff thrust of about 784 tons, and its LEO capacity is 22.8 tons without recovering the core stage. The launch will use the all-new Core Stage B1078.1.
The launch will be the first manned launch of the world's space in 2023 and the second manned spacecraft launch this year after the unmanned launch of the Soyuz MS-23 manned spacecraft. After the launch of the "Shen XV" manned spacecraft on November 29, 2022, after three months, the world space space will restart manned launches in the new year, which will also kick off this year's prosperous manned launches. In the first half of 2023, after the Crew-6 Dragon manned spacecraft, the Ax-2 Dragon manned spacecraft will also be launched in March, followed by the Demo-2 Starliner manned spacecraft in April, and the Shen XVI manned spacecraft in late May.
Author: Dabai Gao Guo
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