spacetoday.net: SpaceX postpones ISS cargo mission to January

Posted: Fri, Dec 19, 2014, 8:05 AM ET (1305 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of CRS4 Dragon (NASA)

SpaceX announced Thursday that it is delaying a launch of a cargo spacecraft to early January to address a technical issue with its Falcon 9 rocket, among other issues. A Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket was scheduled to launch Friday from Cape Canaveral and send a Dragon cargo spacecraft on the fifth of 12 such mission to the ISS. However, SpaceX said a static fire test of the rocket earlier this week did not go as planned, and the company planned to perform a second test to resolve such issues. That, coupled with the holidays and restrictions on ISS operations caused by the station being in nearly constant sunlight over a ten-day period starting in late December, led NASA and SpaceX to reschedule the launch for January 6. Dragon will deliver nearly 2,400 kilograms of cargo to the station and later return with more than 1,650 kilograms of station equipment and experiments.