Citing technical reasons, NASA postpones launch of next ISS crew members

Image courtesy: NASA

New Delhi: After announcing the September 23rd launch schedule for the next space station crew, NASA has indefinitely postponed the event.

The US space agency made the announcement on the morning of September 17th, saying that, “Roscosmos decided to postpone the planned September 23, 2016 launch of the spacecraft “Soyuz MS – 02” for technical reasons after routine tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch date of the spacecraft will be announced later.”

The Soyuz spacecraft was supposed to carry three crew members as part of Expedition 49 to the International Space Station. The team includes NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.