Friday, January 20, 2012

SpaceX launch no earlier than late March

SpaceX's won't launch its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station until at least late March, a spokesperson confirmed today.

The company recently announced it wouldn't launch on its target date of Feb. 7, but hadn't said how long the wait might be.

SpaceX has a March 20 launch date tentatively reserved with the Eastern Range.

The means the mission will follow the flight of Europe's ATV-3 cargo vehicle, which is scheduled to launch March 9 and dock at the station March 19.

SpaceX has not specified the issues that resulted in the delay, saying only that it would launch the Dragon and its Falcon 9 when ready.

The mission is a demonstration under a NASA program developing commercial vehicles to deliver cargo to the station. If the demonstration is successful, SpaceX would then begin deliveries under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.

1 comment:

jason32473 said...

Maybe if Musk was giving so much money to Obama's re-election campaign he might be able to run his company.