NASA's next astronaut mission will push later into August due to more delays with the assigned launch pad.
Crew-7 will now launch on Aug. 25, two days later than its last estimate. That's because SpaceX, which just launched a Falcon Heavy rocket from the same launch pad, needed "additional time ... to complete pad readiness," NASA officials wrote in a update Thursday (Aug. 3).
SpaceX does not typically comment on launch pad operations and issued no statements on the matter on its social media channels.
Crew-7's new launch target is 3:49 a.m. EDT (0749 GMT) on Aug. 25, flying to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You can watch the whole thing live at Space.com, via NASA Television.
Related: SpaceX launches Crew-6 astronaut mission to space station for NASA
Crew-7 is scheduled to send four astronauts to space — NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russia's Konstantin Borisov — to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule named Endurance.
Falcon Heavy has already caused delays to the Crew-7 mission. The first announced target was Aug. 15, but after the July 28 Falcon Heavy launch issues on the pad became apparent. In the last 10 days, NASA has announced new launch dates three times and cited pad readiness as the cause: Aug. 17, Aug. 23 and now Aug. 25.
The new launch date may also bump the handover time for a departing group on the ISS, known as Crew-6. Crew-6 was supposed to leave on Aug. 25, but NASA generally wants at least a few days of time between departing and arriving crews. The agency has not yet released handover details.
NASA's update also stated the new launch date "takes advantage of consecutive launch opportunities and deconflicts the station's cargo spacecraft traffic schedule."
A Roscosmos Progress cargo spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the orbiting lab on Aug. 24, assuming it launches on time the day before. As for Crew-7, its current docking time is about 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT) on Aug. 26.
Backup opportunities for launch of Crew-7 are also available on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, per NASA officials.
