spacetoday.net: Cargo Dragon mission launches after Soyuz scrub

Posted: Sun, Mar 24, 2024, 9:57 AM ET (1357 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of CRS-30 (SpaceX)

A SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft launched to the International Space Station hours after a rare scrub of a Soyuz crewed launch. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 4:55 pm EDT (2055 GMT) Thursday and placed the CRS-30 Dragon into orbit. The Dragon, carrying more than 2,800 kilograms of cargo, is scheduled to dock with the ISS Saturday morning. The launch was the first to use a new crew tower at Space Launch Complex 40, which SpaceX built to provide a backup to Launch Complex 39A. Seven and a half hours earlier, a Soyuz rocket aborted its countdown just 20 seconds before liftoff at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was to send the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, carrying a NASA astronaut and Russian and Belarusian cosmonauts, to the station. A low voltage reading the rocket caused the scrub, delaying the launch to Saturday.