SpaceX Stands Down from Crew-6 Launch and California Starlink Mission [Update]

Photo: NASA

Just moments before liftoff on late Sunday/early Monday, @SpaceX announced that it was standing down its Crew-6 Mission launch due to a TEA-TEB ground system issue.

SpaceX said it’s now shooting for no earlier than Thursday, March 2 for the Crew-6 Mission launch, set for 12:34 a.m. ET, as can now be seen on the company’s website.

Standing down from tonight's launch of Crew-6 due to a TEA-TEB ground system issue. Both Crew-6 and the vehicles are healthy and propellant offload has begun ahead of the crew disembarking Dragon

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 27, 2023

The company also stated on Monday that it was standing down the launch of 51 Starlink satellites in California due to unfavorable weather, later stating that a Florida Starlink launch was being postponed until 6:13 p.m. ET due to a space weather concern.

SpaceX said another opportunity was available on Tuesday for its separate Florida Starlink mission. However, the company added that the Crew-6 Mission has priority over the Starlink launch, noting that it would stand down from the Starlink launch if conditions were favorable for the former mission.

Update: SpaceX now says “Due to a space weather concern, now targeting no earlier than 6:13 p.m. ET for today’s launch of 21 second-generation Starlink satellites from Florida.”

TEA-TEB refers to Triethylaluminum-Triethylborane, which is used by SpaceX to help ignite SpaceX’s Merlin ground engines. SpaceX also stated that both Crew-6 and the Dragon spacecraft were healthy after the cancellation.

The Crew-6 mission will cart four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard the Dragon spacecraft, at which time the Crew-5 astronauts will use the craft to return to Earth after around six months on the orbital station.