SpaceX’s next Dragon passengers will have to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, its next manned mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement (opens new tab) released Thursday (July 21). The delay will cause the mission to slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.
“A late September launch will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing, and mission teams will continue to revise the launch date based on the spacecraft’s schedule of visits to the space station,” NASA officials wrote .
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be a crucial milestone for NASA, which has long advocated “crew changes” in which Russian cosmonauts fly on commercial NASA missions and NASA astronauts continue to travel in Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry an astronaut. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have also agreed that cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will fly Crew-6, which is currently aiming for a spring launch. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O’Hara will each fly on Soyuz missions in the coming months.
Crew-5’s new schedule means the vehicles will swap launch slots and passengers.
The Crew-5 mission previously aimed to reach the orbiting lab in early September. Under the new schedule, instead of Crew-5 replacing Crew-4 astronauts in orbit before the next Soyuz launch, Soyuz crews will go first. The launch of the next Soyuz and the return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between September 16 and 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also provided details about the rocket and capsule Crew-5 will fly.
The mission will use the Dragon Endurance capsule, which also carried Crew-3 for the November 2021 launch; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX regularly uses its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; It will be the first commercial flight for the crew to carry four veteran Draco engines to power the capsule, without the new thrusters called forward bulkhead Draco. The teams are also replacing the capsule’s heat shield, parachutes and panels, the statement said.
Endurance will launch atop a new Falcon 9 booster, but the mission staff still has some issues to work out on that front. According to the statement, the booster suffered some damage during the trip from the SpaceX production center in California to a test facility in Texas. Consequently, the company is replacing both the intermediate stage, which connects the first and second stages, and some instruments.
Both SpaceX and NASA rely on the booster, which underwent a series of tests to ensure there was no damage beyond the segment between stages; Additional testing will also be done after all replacements are completed, the statement said.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom yen Facebook.