NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for a Halloween launch, has been delayed until November.
The stay of launch allows SpaceX more time to evaluate what NASA called "off-nominal behavior" of a Falcon 9 during a recent launch attempt. It's unclear exactly what went wrong with the rocket's first-stage engine gas generators.
"With the high cadence of missions SpaceX performs, it really gives us incredible insight into this commercial system and helps us make informed decisions about the status of our missions," Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission DIrectorate, said in a statement. "The teams are actively working this finding on the engines, and we should be a lot smarter within the coming week."
Rescheduled for early-to-mid November, the SpaceX Crew-1 mission will carry three NASA astronauts—Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker—and JAXA specialist Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station. In preparation, the reusable Crew Dragon Resilience craft was secured to its unpressurized trunk last week.
Once docked with the International Space Station, the team will join Expedition 64 members Kate Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov for spacewalks and unpiloted flight tests. They'll also be there to welcome the Russian Soyuz vehicle and next SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2021.
"The Crew-1 mission is a major step for NASA's Commercial Crew Program," the US space program said in a blog announcement. "Operational, long duration commercial crew rotation missions will enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place onboard the station. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future exploration of the Moon and Mars."
Next month's trip to the ISS isn't the only mission that relies on a working Falcon 9 vehicle: The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and SpaceX CRS-21 are targeted for launch in November/December from California and Florida, respectively.