CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space station astronauts will have to wait until next month for their Christmas delivery.
On Thursday, the SpaceX company announced it was delaying this week’s planned shipment until January. Company spokesman John Taylor says a test firing of the rocket engines earlier this week did not go precisely as planned at the Cape Canaveral launch pad. He says the company is proceeding with caution and wants to conduct a second test before committing to a launch.
Combined with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, as well as the sun’s angles on the space station, the earliest the California-based company can launch is January 6.
NASA says the delay will not affect the space station or its six occupants. The agency is paying SpaceX to launch supplies and experiments.
