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.
Two months after a coolant leak disabled a Soyuz crew ferry spacecraft at the International Space Station, Russia’s space agency launched of a replacement vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday, and the craft docked at the station at 7:58 p.m. EST Saturday (0058 GMT Sunday). The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft launched without any people on-board, and will serve as a lifeboat and ride home for a three-man space station crew later this year.
Russia’s space agency said Tuesday that preliminary data suggest a coolant leak on a Progress cargo freighter docked at the International Space Station earlier this month was caused by “external influences” — possibly something that occurred during its launch last year, according to a senior NASA space station manager.
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