The next launch of cargo to the International Space Station has been postponed due to strange fuel readings
The joint NASA-SpaceX team will announce the new launch date after investigating the exact source of the increased readings and determining the cause. Representative image
SpaceX’s next cargo mission to the International Space Station will not be launched this week. The robotic flight, called CRS-25, was to send a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the orbital laboratory on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The departure was scheduled for Friday (June 10th), but it will not happen.
“NASA and SpaceX are withdrawing from the launch of the Falcon 9 this week on the CRS-25 cargo mission to the International Space Station,” NASA officials wrote in an email on June 6. “NASA and SpaceX officials met today to discuss an issue identified over the weekend and the best way forward.”
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This problem includes hydrazine, the fuel used by Dragon’s Draco pushers. While charging the Dragon, technicians measured increased readings of hydrazine fumes in part of the Draco system, NASA said in a statement.
“The propellant and oxidant have been unloaded from this region to support further inspections and tests,” the statement added. “Once the exact source of the elevated readings has been identified and the cause has been determined, NASA and SpaceX teams will set and announce a new launch target.
CRS-25 will be the 25th supply replenishment robot SpaceX launches to NASA’s International Space Station. The mission will be the third for this particular Dragon, which also launched cargo missions to the orbital laboratory in December 2020 and August 2021.
New launch date coming soon
A joint NASA-SpaceX team will announce a new launch date after investigating the exact source of the increased readings and determining the cause, the reports said.
Meanwhile, flight engineers Jessica Watkins of NASA and Samantha Christophoretti of the European Space Agency (ESA), who are currently on the ISS, will gain speed with the procedures for meeting and docking the cargo ship Dragon.
Both Watkins and Christophoretti were trained on a computer on Monday to prepare them for their roles as they watched the Dragon arrive.
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