{"id":65099,"date":"2026-08-31T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=8736b898dc8098128beb018e228b259d"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:36:00","slug":"spacex-nasa-delay-next-astronaut-launch-to-iss-due-to-leak-on-dragon-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/08\/31\/spacex-nasa-delay-next-astronaut-launch-to-iss-due-to-leak-on-dragon-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX, NASA delay next astronaut launch to ISS due to leak on Dragon spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <p>SpaceX's next astronaut mission to the International Space Station won't launch on Sept. 12 after all.<\/p><p>That flight, known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/international-space-station\/a-very-busy-mission-spacex-on-track-to-launch-4-astronauts-to-the-iss-on-sept-12\"><u>Crew-13<\/u><\/a>, has been delayed due to an oxidizer leak in the propulsion system of SpaceX's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18852-spacex-dragon.html\"><u>Dragon<\/u><\/a> spacecraft, NASA announced on Saturday (Aug. 29). <\/p><p>\"Joint NASA and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\"><u>SpaceX<\/u><\/a> teams are performing additional tests and data review and will complete any necessary rework prior to launch,\" NASA officials wrote in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/blogs\/spacestation\/2026\/08\/29\/nasa-spacex-adjust-crew-13-launch-date\/\" ><u>update on Saturday<\/u><\/a>. \"A new target date will be announced once available.\"<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/Va8bmf7Q.html\" id=\"Va8bmf7Q\" title=\"NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 docks to the International Space Station\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>Crew-13 will launch atop a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\"><u>Falcon 9<\/u><\/a> rocket from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/33926-cape-canaveral.html\"><u>Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/u><\/a><\/p><p>As its name suggests, it will be the 13th operational astronaut mission SpaceX flies to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/missions\/international-space-station\"><u>International Space Station<\/u><\/a> (ISS) for NASA. (The company also conducted a crewed test flight to the orbiting lab, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-demo2-nasa-astronaut-launch-success.html\"><u>Demo-2<\/u><\/a>, which launched in May 2020.)<\/p><p>Crew-13 will send NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney of NASA, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22534-canadian-space-agency.html\"><u>Canadian Space Agency<\/u><\/a>'s Josh Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Russia's federal space corporation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22724-roscosmos.html\"><u>Roscosmos<\/u><\/a> to the ISS for a seven-month stay.<\/p><p>\"We expect a very busy mission with lots of station maintenance, both internal and external, with a few EVAs [extravehicular activities, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacewalk-history.html\"><u>spacewalks<\/u><\/a>] on the docket,\" Watkins said during an Aug. 3 press conference. <\/p><p>There will also be \"visiting vehicle capture and stowage operations, lots of science \u2014 very interesting science experiments that will be flying with us as well \u2014 and plenty of outreach,\" she added.<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/hxsBjU6I.html\" id=\"hxsBjU6I\" title=\"NASA astronaut Chris Williams talks ISS mission in post-flight news conference\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>SpaceX just launched a high-profile mission for NASA, sending the agency's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/news\/live\/nancy-grace-roman-telescope-live-updates-nasa-readies-roman-for-launch-august-30-2026\"><u>Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/u><\/a> into the final frontier on Sunday (Aug. 30) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/nasa-roman-space-telescope-launch-success-on-a-spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-spectacular-launch-video\"><u>atop a Falcon Heavy rocket<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p>And the company is gearing up for an important test flight of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html\"><u>Starship<\/u><\/a>, the next-generation megarocket that it thinks will revolutionize spaceflight. The upcoming liftoff, the 14th to date for Starship, will see the rocket reach Earth orbit for the first time, if all goes to plan. SpaceX is thought to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-test-fires-starship-super-heavy-booster-ahead-of-key-test-flight\"><u>targeting mid-September<\/u><\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-will-try-for-1st-starship-tower-catch-in-a-few-months-elon-musk-says\"><u>Starship Flight 14<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The launch of SpaceX&#8217;s Crew-13 mission to the ISS, previously scheduled for Sept. 12, has been delayed due to an oxidizer leak on the Dragon spacecraft. A new target has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2799,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-launches-amp-spacecraft","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65117,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65099\/revisions\/65117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}