Elon Musk's SpaceX, NASA Now Target April-End To Send Crew-4 Astronauts To Space

U.S. space agency NASA said on Tuesday it is now targeting the last week of April to send the Crew-4 astronauts to the International Space Station via Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

What Happened: The space companies are targeting no earlier than 5:26 a.m. ET Saturday, April 23, for the launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The dates have been adjusted due to the launch of SpaceX’s first 10-day, all-private Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the ISS on April 8.

The Crew-4 launch date will have two backups— on Sunday, April 24, and Monday, April 25.

The mission will ferry NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to the space station.

The astronauts will fly on a new Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom, on the reusable Falcon 9 rocket.

The transfer mission will see Crew-3 astronauts splash down off the coast of Florida following a handover with Crew-4 on the space station.

See Also: Elon Musk's SpaceX Set To Launch First All-Private ISS Mission With Axiom Space On Friday

Why It Matters: The Crew-4 mission was first scheduled to take place on April 19 but is being postponed due to the delay in Ax-1. 

SpaceX last week launched its first private mission to the ISS without any government-sponsored astronauts. The agency last year flew an all-civilian crew to Earth’s orbit on a three-day trip, without a stopover at the ISS.

SpaceX and NASA are working on multiple projects including a $2.9 billion lunar landing contract. Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and making life multi-planetary.