Sultan Al Neyadi's space launch delayed

Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi's launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the United States has been delayed due to a "ground issue".

It was scheduled to blast off from Earth at 10:45 am (UAE time) on Monday.

Al Neyadi and his crewmates from NASA and Roscosmos had boarded the spacecraft and were minutes away from lift-off when the issue was reported during final checks. 

In a tweet, NASA said the Crew-6 launch has been scrubbed due to an issue with the ground systems.

"Stand by for details on a new launch date and time," NASA added.

Launch Update: Today's #Crew6 launch has been scrubbed due to an issue with ground systems. Stand by for details on a new launch date and time. https://t.co/149FPqMrnu pic.twitter.com/1PSYsjCGpL

— NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2023

The first backup launch opportunity for the mission was set for early Tuesday, about 24 hours from the initial attempt to get the rocket off the ground.

Neither NASA nor SpaceX immediately said how long it might actually take before they would be ready to try again. Eleventh-hour launch scrubs are fairly routine in the highly complex and risky endeavor of human spaceflight.

In a chat with Dubai Eye 103.8's The Agenda, an expert in the space sector explained what the delay meant.