SpaceX has to wait for the flight ban to be lifted

space company SpaceX still has to postpone the space flight, the important goal of which is to realize the first spacewalk by private citizens.

The name of the flight is Polaris Dawn. It was scheduled to lift off into space on Friday from NASA’s Space Center in Florida.

Already earlier on Wednesday, its departure was cancelled. SpaceX announced an hour before takeoff that the flight would be delayed due to bad weather forecast.

The departure of Polaris was also canceled the day before, on Tuesday. The cause was a helium gas leak in the supply line of the transmission tower and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Friday the delay is, in turn, due to the fact that the US Space Flight Authority The FAA ordered a temporary grounding of the Falcon 9 launch vehicles.

The reason was that one of the Falcon’s launchers exploded on Wednesday, after it had already returned to the ferry in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the Falcon successfully carried 23 Starlink satellites into space on that flight.

Astronauts carrying private spaceships hasn’t fared too well lately.

Another private flight of astronauts, the Boeing company’s test flight Starliner, ran into problems at the beginning of June. The capsule was difficult to steer, and the Starliner docked clumsily to the International Space Station.

Aerospace engineers spent weeks investigating problems with the Starliner’s steering.

On Thursday, Nasa decided that two Starliner astronauts will miss the re-entry. So Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore are left waiting for the return flight to the space station.

Starliner return empty to Earth after September 6, says the website Space.com. Astronauts will not reach Earth on a different ride until next year.

Polaris dawnin the flight now and its next two flights are financed by a billionaire Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman wants to be the first civilian to perform a private spacewalk. He has financed a large part of the project, which is managed by SpaceX.

Crew Dragon is mainly designed to transport astronauts to the ISS space station. However, during the flight of Polaris Dawn, this capsule of astronauts will not remain in regular orbits. Crew Dragon tries to rise to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers.

It would be the farthest point from Earth on a five-day flight. At the same time, it would be the farthest point from Earth that a space pilot has visited in more than 50 years, says the BBC. The last time they flew as far from Earth Apollo lunar program astronauts in 1968–1972.

The other three astronauts on Polaris Dawn are former US Air Force pilots Scott Poteet and two engineers from the space company SpaceX, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.