SpaceX-1 astronauts' mission to the space station delayed until April 6

The first fully private manned mission to the International Space Station will not be launched this weekend.

Axiom Space Ax mission 1 It was intended to take off on Sunday (April 3) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. But on Monday (March 28), NASA officially approved Friday (April 1) through Sunday a crucial “wet clothes rehearsal.” Artemis 1 Moon mission, a training session that is also conducted at KSC. So Ax-1 is paid a few days.

“NASA, Axiom, and SpaceX are now considering no later than April 6 to launch the Axiom 1 (X-1) mission, the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, pending term approval,” according to NASA officials. Wrote in an update on Monday afternoon.

Ax-1 Special Mission to the Space Station: Live Updates

Ax-1 will use a file SpaceX A Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to send four people to the space station for eight days. Three of them pay customers; The fourth is Axiom employee Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut leading the mission.

SpaceX has another astronaut launch coming from KSC too – launch Crew Mission 4, which will send three NASA astronauts and one European spaceflight to the long-circulating space laboratory. Agency officials said in today’s update that NASA and SpaceX were targeting April 19 to launch Crew-4, and that is still the case despite the Ax-1 delay.

Artemis 1 Rehearsal is a series of tests that will simulate activities and actions prior to launch, including massive mission fueling. space launch system (SLS) missile. (This is what the word “wet” stands for.)

Artemis 1, the first flight of the SLS, will send NASA’s Orion capsule on an uncrewed mission around the moon. Launch is tentatively expected in May or June; NASA will set an official target date after analyzing the results of the wet clothes and other tests.

Mike Wall is the author of “AbroadBook (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed. Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed or on Facebook.