NASA and SpaceX postpone flight to rescue astronauts trapped on the International Space Station.
The launch was canceled due to a problem with the hydraulic system on a ground support arm for the Falcon 9 rocket, NASA said.
By Joey Roulette
(Reuters)- NASA and SpaceX on Wednesday postponed the launch of a replacement crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station, which would have marked the long-awaited return of American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
NASA would launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying a replacement crew to the International Space Station on a mission that would prepare for the return to Earth of Wilmore and Williams -- stranded in space for nine months after a trip on Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner.
The launch was canceled due to a problem with the hydraulic system on a ground support arm for the Falcon 9 rocket, NASA said in a statement.
The launch teams are working to resolve the issue, the statement said.
NASA said it is now planning a launch no earlier than 19:03 p.m. (local time) on Friday, after mission managers postponed a launch attempt on Thursday due to forecasts of strong winds and rain along the Dragon's flight path.
With the launch of Crew-10 on Friday, the Crew-9 mission, with astronauts Wilmore and Williams, was scheduled to leave the space station on Wednesday, March 19, according to the agency.
The U.S. space agency moved the mission forward by two weeks after President Donald Trump and his advisor Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, requested that Wilmore and Williams be brought back sooner than NASA had planned.
A planned eight-day stay on the orbiting station dragged on for Wilmore and Williams, both veteran astronauts and test pilots in the U.S. Navy. The Starliner returned to Earth without them last year.
Wilmore and Williams were working on research and maintenance with the other astronauts on the space station and remained safe, according to NASA.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru)
