CAPE CANAVERAL: Bad weather forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to delay a test on an unmanned astronaut capsule until Sunday in which it will destroy one of its own rockets in a trial of a crucial emergency abort system.
The trial, the last landmark test for the company before launching NASA astronauts from U.S. soil, was scheduled to be held on Saturday. SpaceX said it was standing down from the Crew Dragon capsule test in a Twitter post here due to high winds and rough seas in the recuperation area.
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SpaceX tweeted, “Standing down from today’s in-flight Crew Dragon launch escape test attempt due to sustained winds and rough seas in the recovery area. Now targeting Sunday, January 19, with a six-hour test window opening at 8:00 a.m. EST, 13:00 UTC.”
Standing down from today’s in-flight Crew Dragon launch escape test attempt due to sustained winds and rough seas in the recovery area. Now targeting Sunday, January 19, with a six-hour test window opening at 8:00 a.m. EST, 13:00 UTC
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 18, 2020
The test is essential for preparing the astronaut capsule of SpaceX to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to arrive as early as mid-2020, after years of development and delays as the United States has tried to restart its program of human spaceflight through private partnerships.
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