WASHINGTON. Dec 18 (Interfax) - A flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) has been moved to March 2025, NASA said.
The mission, initially scheduled for February, has been moved due to the need for additional time for technical preparation of the spacecraft.
"Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail," NASA Commercial Crew Manager Steve Stich said.
Besides Kirill Peskov, the Crew Dragon 10 will be carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi. They are being trained at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Crew Dragon 9 comprising NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov is working at the ISS and is due to return to the Earth a week after Crew Dragon 10 arrives.