NASA has postponed the scheduled launch of four astronauts for the Crew-9 mission to September 2024 due to problems with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft was originally scheduled to deliver NASA astronauts Zina Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson and Alexander Gorbunov from Roscosmos on August 18 to carry the Crew-8 crew back to Earth.
However, problems with the Starliner spacecraft during a test mission to the International Space Station on June 5 caused Boeing and NASA teams to spend time analyzing solutions, delaying the launch of the Mission 9 crewed mission in the interest of “operational flexibility,” according to a NASA press release.
The launch delay to Sept. 24 allows NASA and Roscosmos operations teams to focus on the crew’s launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, scheduled for mid-September. It does not affect preparations for the Europa Clipper spacecraft’s mission to Jupiter, which will travel aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket in October.
However, the Crew-9 astronaut delivery had to be shifted to launch pad SLC-40 to prepare launch pad LC-39A for the Europa Clipper spacecraft, while the Dragon resupply mission on the CRS-31 mission was postponed to mid-October instead.
Image: NASA/Bill Stafford/Robert Markowitz
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