SpaceX and NASA astronaut launch to ISS canceled due to last-minute technical issues

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida. – Last-minute technical issues forced SpaceX to cancel Monday’s attempt to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

The countdown was stopped two minutes before liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center. A split second before the start, there was no time to deal with the problem associated with the engine ignition system.

SpaceX has delayed the launch until at least Thursday.

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The Falcon rocket capsule carried two NASA astronauts, one Russian cosmonaut and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates. They had to wait until all the fuel was drained from the rocket—a process that took an hour—before getting off.

“We will sit here and wait,” Commander Stephen Bowen assured everyone. “We all feel good.”

Bowen and his team, including the first United Arab Emirates astronaut assigned to the month-long mission, Sultan al-Neyadi, will replace four space station residents who have been there since October.

Officials said the problem was with ground equipment used to load the engine’s ignition fluid. The launch command could not be sure of a full boot. A SpaceX engineer compared this critical system to the spark plugs in a car.

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