NASA will have to wait a bit longer to send humans to space from US soil.
The space agency pays two private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, to build and launch spacecraft that will send astronauts to the International Space Station.
But first these companies launch unmanned test flights, and those flights have been delayed. SpaceX is targeting a launch at the end of next year and Boeing will follow in June of 2018.
While NASA didn’t say why the target dates slipped, a delay was expected after an explosion earlier this year grounded the SpaceX rocket fleet. In a statement, SpaceX said the team is working to complete the final steps of that investigation.
Boeing said in a statement while there will always be a tremendous interest in key dates, astronaut safety is its primary concern.
There is a bit of a time crunch for NASA. The space agency has a contract to launch US astronauts on Russian spacecraft through the end of 2018, and there’s no indication that contract will be extended.
