NASA and SpaceX postponed a planned Monday launch of a four-member crew to the International Space Station due to a ground systems issue.
The decision came less than three minutes before the spacecraft was due to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
A backup launch date had already been set for early Tuesday.
The four-person crew includes two Americans, one Russian and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
NASA said their planned six-month mission includes a range of scientific experiments including studying how materials burn in microgravity, collecting microbial samples from outside the space station and “tissue chip research on heart, brain, and cartilage functions.” – gb
