SpaceX Scrubs Launch of Flight to Replace Stuck Astronauts

SpaceX on Wednesday night scrubbed the launch of a flight that was intended to replace the two astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for nine months. The Crew-10 flight was slated to take off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, but a problem with the launchpad's ground system forced a delay, CNN reports. As the AP reports, the four astronauts were already strapped into their capsule and there was less than an hour left in the countdown when the final call was made. The issue had to do with a hydraulic system on the ground; officials said there were no issues with the rocket itself. SpaceX said Friday would be the earliest the launch could be rescheduled.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June as the pilots of the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule, but so many problems were detected with the capsule during the flight that NASA deemed it too dangerous to return the astronauts to Earth a week later as planned. They, along with NASA's Nick Hague and Roscosmos' Aleksandr Gorbunov, were slated to return to Earth from the ISS on Sunday after the four new astronauts acclimated, and it's unclear how much that return will now be delayed by the SpaceX launch scrub. (More SpaceX stories.)