SpaceX, NASA Delay Next Astronaut Launch

The company had been preparing to launch the four-person Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA early on Friday (August 25) from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. However, that timeline has now been pushed back.

According to Space.com, NASA officials stated in an email on Thursday night (August 24), "NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Friday, Aug. 25, launch opportunity for the agency's Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station. Launch is now targeted for 3:27 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, for SpaceX's seventh crew rotation mission to the microgravity laboratory for NASA. More information to follow."

SpaceX also commented on the delay via X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday night, stating, "The new launch date provides teams additional time to complete and discuss analysis. The vehicles remain healthy, and the crew is ready to fly," without specifying the specific issue(s) requiring further analysis.

Crew-7 will transport four astronauts representing different space agencies to the ISS for an approximately six-month mission. They will reach the station using SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule Endurance, which has already completed two missions to the orbiting laboratory.

The crew members include NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who will serve as Endurance's commander; Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, representing Denmark, as the pilot; and Satoshi Furukawa and Konstantin Borisov from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, respectively. Furukawa and Borisov will be mission specialists for Crew-7.

As the name suggests, Crew-7 marks SpaceX's seventh operational mission to the ISS for NASA and the 11th human spaceflight mission overall for Elon Musk's company. One of SpaceX's previous missions, Crew-6, is still at the ISS and is scheduled to depart about five days after the arrival of Crew-7.