SpaceX is postponing from late 2018 to mid-2019 the first commercial launch of its human-powered spacecraft into moon orbit. This was reported on Sunday in its electronic version by The Wall Street Journal.
She cites SpaceX spokesman James Gleason, who, however, did not disclose the reasons for such a move. “SpaceX still plans to send a private individual to orbit the moon. Interest in this from many customers is growing,”said Gleason.
The publication draws attention to the fact that initially this company planned 28 launches for the current year. So far, this figure is down 40%, reflecting a sharp decline in the world in the number of orders for the construction and launch of large commercial satellites.
In January, the same newspaper reported that the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was postponing the start of regular manned spacecraft flights, developed by SpaceX and Boeing, until spring 2019. This is due to the too high risk of emergency situations and accidents during the operation of these commercial ships. The Americans use Orbital ATK's Cygnus and SpaceX's Dragon to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
On January 8, 2018, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral (Florida) (which was supposed to launch the military satellite Zuma, but it was not detected in low-earth orbit by the US Air Force Strategic Command. The company said that the rocket worked properly., the loss of the Zuma was caused by a malfunction in the system for separating the satellite from the upper stage of the rocket, for which the company Northrop Grumman, who built the spacecraft, is responsible.