SpaceX Crew Dragon preps for lift-off, to dock with ISS 

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off on Monday (February 27) and take two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from Unite Arab Emirates (UAE) to International Space Station (ISS).

The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:45 am (0645 GMT). Weather conditions are expected to be near perfect.

The Crew Dragon capsule, called Endevour, will dock with the ISS at 0738 GMT on Tuesday. NASA expressed confidence about the launch

"Countdown to liftoff!..." tweeted NASA while promoting its livestream of the launch.

NASA's Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia's Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates are to spend six months on the orbiting space station.

Neyadi, 41, will be the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second from the oil-rich UAE to journey to space; his compatriot Hazzaa al-Mansoori flew an eight-day mission in 2019.

Neyadi described the upcoming mission as a "great honor."

Hoburg, the Endeavour pilot, and Fedyaev, the Russian mission specialist, will also be making their first space flights.

Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket. NASA astronauts fly regularly to the station on Russian Soyuz capsules.

Space has remained a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the Russian offensive in Ukraine placed the two in sharp opposition.

Such exchanges have continued despite those tensions.

Bowen, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, said politics rarely come up while in space.

"We're all professionals. We keep focused on the mission itself," the mission commander said. "It's always been a great relationship we've had with cosmonauts once we get to space."

While aboard the ISS, the Crew-6 members will conduct dozens of experiments including studying how materials burn in microgravity and researching heart, brain and cartilage functions.

The current crew is the sixth to be transported by a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. The Endeavour capsule has flown into space three times.

(With inputs from agencies)

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