SpaceX’s next astronaut mission to the International Space Station won’t launch on Sept. 12 after all.
That flight, known as Crew-13, has been delayed due to an oxidizer leak in the propulsion system of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, NASA announced on Saturday (Aug. 29).
“Joint NASA and SpaceX teams are performing additional tests and data review and will complete any necessary rework prior to launch,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Saturday. “A new target date will be announced once available.”
Crew-13 will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
As its name suggests, it will be the 13th operational astronaut mission SpaceX flies to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. (The company also conducted a crewed test flight to the orbiting lab, called Demo-2, which launched in May 2020.)
Crew-13 will send NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency‘s Josh Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Russia’s federal space corporation Roscosmos to the ISS for a seven-month stay.
“We expect a very busy mission with lots of station maintenance, both internal and external, with a few EVAs [extravehicular activities, or spacewalks] on the docket,” Watkins said during an Aug. 3 press conference.
There will also be “visiting vehicle capture and stowage operations, lots of science — very interesting science experiments that will be flying with us as well — and plenty of outreach,” she added.
SpaceX just launched a high-profile mission for NASA, sending the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into the final frontier on Sunday (Aug. 30) atop a Falcon Heavy rocket.
And the company is gearing up for an important test flight of Starship, the next-generation megarocket that it thinks will revolutionize spaceflight. The upcoming liftoff, the 14th to date for Starship, will see the rocket reach Earth orbit for the first time, if all goes to plan. SpaceX is thought to be targeting mid-September for Starship Flight 14.
