Space Exploration Technologies or “SpaceX” as they are more commonly known announced that the planned launch of its next Dragon spacecraft will not take place on Feb. 7 as was previously announced. The company stated that it wanted to conduct further testing before going ahead with the launch.
When launched, the Dragon spacecraft will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 or SLC-40. It is scheduled to fly the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services or COTS demo flights 2 & 3 – in one single mission. SpaceX requested and received permission to combine Demo flights 2 and 3 into a single mission. This flight could potentially see the first commercial spacecraft berth with the International Space Station (ISS) some time in 2012.
There are a wide range of things that could go wrong with the upcoming Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems Demo flight. As such, SpaceX is working to mitigate as many risks as possible. Photo Credit: NASA
For now, however, SpaceX has utilized the NASA mantra that the launch will occur when everything is in its proper place and functioning as it should.
“In preparation for the upcoming launch, SpaceX continues to conduct extensive testing and analysis,” said Kirstin Brost, a spokeswoman with SpaceX. “We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission. We are now working with NASA to establish a new target launch date, but note that we will continue to test and review data. We will launch when the vehicle is ready.”
Last Fall’s “Dry Run” for the final review for this flight was very (to put it mildly) problematic.
SpaceX resources are strained trying to make all the required corrections.
Be interesting to see how long it takes to get ready to try the test flight.