excerpts from spaceflightnow.com... SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Kennedy Space Center with a four-man crew heading for a six-month stay on the International Space Station, including the first Arab astronaut to fly on a long-duration space mission.
NASA’s Crew-6 mission took off from pad 39A at the Florida spaceport and arced northeast to line up with the space station’s orbit. Liftoff occurred at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Thursday, with the Falcon 9 rocket’s nine kerosene-fueled engines casting a brilliant orange glow visible across Central Florida.
The midnight-hour launch was delayed three days after a problem with a ground system supplying ignition fluid for the main engines. After halting the countdown early Monday, SpaceX technicians found and replaced a clogged filter and set up for another countdown Wednesday night, culminating in the Falcon 9’s thundering blastoff after midnight.
Generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust, the Falcon 9 climbed into a clear sky, trailing growing plume of orange exhaust as the rocket soared into the stratosphere.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, the first stage booster shut down its nine engines and released to begin a descent back to a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Full story
here.
