It appears highly unlikely that SpaceX will be ready to launch its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday as previously planned. Word first came out Tuesday night that the launch was in danger of slipping to give the company more time to get the Dragon ready for its mission to the ISS. Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX provided the following statement: “At this time, a May 7th launch appears unlikely. SpaceX is continuing to work through the software assurance process with NASA. We will issue a statement as soon as a new launch target is set.” SpaceX hasn’t issued a statement since then, but one NASA manifest already has the launch listed as “NET [no earlier than] 5/10/2012″.
May 10 is the previously-announced backup date for the May 7 launch date. Beyond that, though, SpaceX would have to stand down until after a Soyuz launch scheduled for the night of May 14.
[…] Another delay looming for SpaceX […]