A four-person crew’s flight to the International Space Station has been postponed, according to NASA and SpaceX on Thursday.
NASA said the mission was “standing down” from a scheduled Friday launch time, but did not provide a reason for the move.
“Launch now is targeted at 3:27 am (local time; 07:27 GMT) Saturday, Aug. 26, for SpaceX’s seventh crew rotation mission to the microgravity laboratory for NASA,” the US space agency said in a statement.
The mission, known as Crew-7, will be piloted by American Jasmin Moghbeli and feature Russian Konstantin Borisov, Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan.
The NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida will serve as the launch site for the mission, with a backup window of opportunity at 3:04 am (07:04 GMT) on Sunday.
SpaceX said the new launch date provided “teams additional time to complete and discuss analysis.”
“The vehicles remain healthy and crew is ready to fly.”
It will be the first space mission for both Moghbeli and Borisov.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember,” said Moghbeli, a Naval test pilot, during a media call last month.
“One of the things I’m most excited about is looking back at our beautiful planet,” added the 40-year-old of Iranian heritage.
“Everyone who I’ve talked to who has flown already has said that was a life changing perspective — and also floating around in space, it seems really fun.”
The first routine voyage for Elon Musk’s SpaceX to the orbital platform is scheduled to launch in 2020, and Crew-7 will be the seventh.
After the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA implemented a commercial crew program to lessen reliance on Russian rockets for astronaut transportation. As part of this program, NASA pays SpaceX for the taxi service.
The second private partner with a contract is Boeing, although the company has not yet flown any crew and its program is still plagued with delays and technical issues.
Borisov will be the third Russian to take to the skies in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft mounted atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
Despite the invasion of Ukraine, the US and Russia continue to cooperate in a unique area: space. Americans continue to travel on Russian Soyuz rockets that take off from Kazakhstan.
The crew will spend six months on board the ISS conducting scientific research, including gathering samples on a spacewalk to ascertain whether the station emits germs through life support system vents.
It is important to know whether bacteria can live and multiply in space.
Examining the physiological variations between sleep on Earth and sleep in space will be the focus of another experiment.
“I’m looking forward to coping with all the tasks. This is a very interesting profession: you are preparing for something that you haven’t tried yet, and you really want to do it well,” said Borisov.
After joining the seven other ISS crew members, Crew-7 will depart for Earth a few days after Crew-6.
The ISS’s first component was launched in 1998, and a multinational crew has been living there continuously since 2001.
At least until 2030, when it will be deactivated and slam into the water, it will continue to operate. To replace it, a number of private corporations are developing commercial space stations.
