Falcon 9

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.

This detailed mission timeline covers major vehicle and crew activities during the Crew-6 countdown, launch, and rendezvous with the International Space Station.

SpaceX and NASA launched the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Thursday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off with two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, and a Russian cosmonaut to begin a six-month expedition in orbit. Docking at the International Space Station occurred at 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 GMT) Friday.

Running three days late because of a last-minute technical glitch, a four-man space station crew, including a Russian cosmonaut and the first Arab to be assigned to a long duration spaceflight, braced for a second launch try early Thursday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX scrubbed the launch from Florida of a four-man crew heading to the International Space Station early Monday with less than three minutes remaining in the countdown, delaying the start of a six-month mission to examine a problem with a ground system needed to ignite the Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines.