NASA Pushes Launch of Crew 1 Mission to October 31 Written 29 September 2020
NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, left, and Douglas Hurley take part in a critical crew flight hardware test ahead of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. | Credit: SpaceX; NASA
CBS News reports that NASA has pushed the launch of the Crew 1 mission from October 23 to October 31. The mission will “launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft,” and “will mark the first operational use of the capsule following a successful piloted test flight earlier this summer.” An October 23 launch would have been “just nine days after the October 14 launch of two cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and two days after NASA flier Chris Cassidy and two cosmonaut crewmates return to Earth on October 21 aboard another Soyuz.” The launch delay will give “the station crew and flight controllers in the” US, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan “a chance to catch their collective breath while allowing additional time to resolve any open issues.”
Full Story (CBS News)