NASA/SpaceX Crew-6 mission in final stages before launch

The Crew 6 mission is in its final stages before it's set to launch early Monday morning from the Kennedy Space Center with four astronauts on board. Western Space Coast Bureau Chief Scott Heidler reports it's a critical experiment that will be on board and could impact our understanding of deep space travel. Critical pre-launch check accomplished early Friday morning. The main engines of the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry NASA SpaceX Crew 6 in their crew Dragoncraft fired for seven seconds successfully. And also before the sun rose, the International Crew of four carried out a countdown dress rehearsal. This crew mission is clearly international and demonstrates more crisply than anything else how international it is because we're going with the Russians and things are kind of dicey with the Russians right now. And really this is, it's just incredibly exciting to be here.

Crew 6 is commanded and piloted by NASA astronauts but also includes a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates who will make history. The first of his country on a long-term space mission on the International Space Station. The ISS is an orbiting laboratory. Those experiments, hundreds of them kept on track by the rotation of crews. But one going up on Crew 6 is of particular interest and never been done before. The experiment to find out what kind of bacteria are growing on the outside of the space station. Now 20 years ago we would have said there's no way life can exist outside the space station.

Clear understanding of this type of bacteria is critically important as NASA aims for deep space exploration. Not just to know what bacteria is out there, but the impact the bacteria we bring along with us will have on other planets. NASA said nearly 200 other experiments will be launching at 1.45 on Monday morning. On the Space Coast, Scott Heidler, WESH 2 News.

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