The launch of the Dragon free-flying spacecraft to the International Space Station has been postponed until April, Administrator of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Charles Bolden said last Thursday.

The announcement was made during the NASA Fiscal Year 2017 Budget meeting, as Bolden testified at a hearing on the budget proposal.

Dragon is a spacecraft developed by SpaceX, a US private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into space by the SpaceX Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.

Initially, the launch of the Dragon was scheduled for August 2015, but shortly before that a Falcon 9 rocket crashed during an attempt to send Dragon into orbit. Following the incident, Falcon 9 launches were resumed, but the Dragon mission has been repeatedly postponed.

Last week, after four launch delays, a Falcon 9 rocket failed to perform a successful drone ship landing. However, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said previously to the landing attempt that the company was not expecting a successful test.

Late last year, NASA expanded its partnership with SpaceX by awarding five additional cargo missions to the ISS, adding to the 15 previous assigned missions.

Source: Sputnik News