Science
The launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission has been postponed until November
NASA postponed the launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission until early-to mid-November, the Agency reported on Saturday. The mission would ultimately send three NASA astronauts and an astronaut from Japan's JAXA Space Agency to the International Space Station.
Originally scheduled for October 31, the planned six-month mission was postponed to allow time to address problems with the first-stage gas engine generators on the Falcon 9 rocket, NASA said in a statement. U.S. astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, plus Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will be on board SpaceX's first successful crewed flight to the ISS.
We’re now targeting NET early-to-mid November for launch of @NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the @Space_Station. The extra time will allow SpaceX to resolve an unexpected observation during a recent non-NASA launch attempt. More: https://t.co/sheWOD74m6 pic.twitter.com/YLq1Tb4LfN
— Kathy Lueders (@KathyLueders) October 10, 2020
Crew-1 is one of six scheduled SpaceX missions to be sent to the ISS under a contract with NASA, awarded in 2014 as part of the Commercial Crew Program that took private sector companies to the US space programme.
SpaceX's first Crew Dragon mission, DM-2, or Demo-2, was a two-month visit by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS in May. The Crew Dragon docked with the ISS and returned safely to Earth on August 2nd, giving NASA the data it needed to certify daily trips to and from the ISS with astronauts on board in the future.
