NASA has allayed fears over the safety of two astronauts stuck on board the International Space Station. A hydraulics issue prompted the postponement.
A ground system issue forced SpaceX to postpone a flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday, a mission that was meant to replace NASA’s stranded astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
The new crew needs to get to the Space Station before the two stuck astronauts can return after nine months, so far, in orbit.
What caused the postponed launch?
Concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose just a few hours before the scheduled launch. As the clock ticked down on the Falcon rocket’s planned liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, engineers were checking the hydraulics used to release one of the two arms holding the rocket to its support structure.
Already strapped in, the four astronauts — mission specialist Kirill Peskov of Russia’s Roscosmos, pilot Nichole Ayers and commander Anne McClain from the United States, and mission specialist Takuya Onishi of Japan’s JAXA — awaited a final decision, which came with less than an hour before lift off.
SpaceX has not yet announced a fresh launch date, but noted the next attempt could be as soon as Thursday.
