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SpaceX's new astronaut taxi won't make its inaugural trip to the International Space Station (ISS) this month after all.
SpaceX and Boeing are developing commercial space capsules — called Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner, respectively — to carry NASA astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.
SpaceX had been targeting Feb. 23 for Crew Dragon's shakeout cruise to the ISS, an uncrewed flight called Demo-1. Starliner was scheduled to perform a similar mission in March. But launch dates for both flights have just been pushed to the right, NASA announced today (Feb. 6). [Crew Dragon and Starliner: A Look at the Upcoming Astronaut Taxis]
"The agency now is targeting March 2 for launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon on its uncrewed Demo-1 test flight. Boeing's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test is targeted for launch no earlier than April," NASA officials wrote in the status update.
Source: https://www.space.com/43250-spacex-boeing-commercial-crew-test-launches-delayed.html
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:48PM (1 child)
Well, it would be pretty disappointing if Boeing beat SpaceX with a manned launch to the ISS.
On the other hand, it would be very disappointing if any of the astronauts died.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:05PM
It feels good if SpaceX is first ... But they were not first to launch rockets in the first place, and that didn't prevent them from obsoleting the competition.
"Sure, Boeing go there a month before us. But we got there too, and after NASA checked thoroughly the performance and the price, they're awarding us 90% of the flights" would be a satisfying outcome.