SpaceX, NASA Reschedule Uncrewed Demo-1 Flight Test to ISS; Kathy Lueders Quoted

NASA and SpaceX have changed the target date for an uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Both parties agreed to reschedule Demo-1 launch to Jan. 17 in a move to accommodate the return of the Dragon cargo ship from the company’s 16th resupply mission, NASA said Friday.

SpaceX aims to collect information about the ground, rocket, spacecraft and autonomous docking systems before it conducts the Demo-2 crewed mission.

“We still have more work to do as the certification process, hardware development and readiness reviews continue,” said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

“Ultimately, we’ll fly SpaceX Demo-1 at the right time, so we get the right data back to support the in-flight abort test and the next test flight when our astronauts are aboard.”