SpaceX launch put off for a week

The history-making launch of SpaceX's Dragon capsule to the International Space Station has been delayed by up to a week so that the space firm's engineers can do some more testing. The Dragon was all set to soar atop a Falcon 9 rocket, also made by Elon Musk's SpaceX, on 30 April, but the blast-off has now been moved to 3 May …

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm

I guess the cheese needed to age some more before launch...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me...

Or would it have been a good idea to get the testing and review of the results done before now?

If I was on the ISS I would be suited and ready to jump as it attempts to dock...

[Dom 3]

Re: Is it just me...

It's not going to attempt to dock. It'll be docked by the 'nauts in the ISS, using the robotic arm.

[Chris Hance]

Right, it's the "don't exterminate the meatbags" code that needs work.

Any self-respecting capsule control program isn't going to take kindly to being grappled and flung about the cosmos. Convincing it not to retaliate is obviously taking longer than anticipated.

[Captain TickTock]

At least they're not

Boeing-787- late

[Gary Bickford]

Being the first trip, it makes sense to be excessively careful. They _really_ don't want to mess this up. Consider that NASA built an entire space shuttle (Enterprise) for in-atmosphere testing of flight, landing, etc. Just to make sure that the theory and the practice are as close as possible to the same.

I get the impression that it's not NASA but Space-X taking this delay, in which case good for them. They are taking the responsibility of being sure, not just doing another test because NASA wants them too. We all know what happens when we build and ship software to a schedule, rather than "when it's done".

[Dave Walker]

Software Delay

And most of the delay in the Shuttle program had to do with the software more than the hardware. The Shuttle was virtually uncontrollable with out computers and the code had to be written to *never* fail, crash, or hang.

Fire, well, because, that's all

[D@v3]

i wish them the best of luck

I am quite excited to see the beginning of civilian space travel.

[stizzleswick]

Better safe than sorry.

I agree with Gary Bickford; obviously, Space-X have learned from the Space Shuttle booster failure and the Apollo programme.