CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA leaders are expressing frustration after numerous delays have pushed back the return of astronauts launching from Florida’s Space Coast.

  • NASA frustrated by delays in commercial crew program
  • Boeing and SpaceX were expected to deliver astronauts to ISS by now
  • Both companies were awarded multi-billion dollar contracts

Boeing and SpaceX were expected to start delivering astronauts to the International Space Station by now.

But both companies have experienced setbacks, requiring NASA to continue to pay Russia for seats on its Soyuz rocket.

In 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were both awarded multi-billion dollar contracts to build spacecraft to carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

“Commercial Crew is years behind schedule. NASA expects to see the same level of enthusiasm focused on the investments of the American taxpayer. It’s time to deliver,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted last week, just one day prior to SpaceX’s announcement about its Starship rocket.

“Everything in aerospace is 8 years behind,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told CNN Business.

Musk says SpaceX is three or four months away now from sending NASA astronauts to the space station.

 

NASA on Thursday tweeted the Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 to be used in an in-flight abort test arrived on the Space Coast.

The hardware for the first human flight on Crew Dragon should arrive next month, Musk says.

“Most of the work that is required from now through flight of NASA astronauts is a long series of safety reviews, so it’s not really hardware related, and it’s really going as fast as we can go,” Musk told CNN Business.

SpaceX was successfully able to launch an unmanned version of their Crew Dragon to the ISS back in March.

But everything came to a grinding halt when in April, during a test on the cape, the same spacecraft exploded sending a plume of smoke that could be seen for miles.

For its part, Boeing still hasn’t completed its unmanned test launch or its abort test.

Bridenstine tells CNN with both companies experiencing similar challenges, he’s doubtful we’ll see astronauts launching from the Space Coast anytime soon.

“If there’s some way to make it go faster, I would make it go faster,” Musk said.

Things have somewhat calmed down between SpaceX and Bridenstine. Bridenstine tweeted Thursday that he had a “great phone call with Elon Musk this week, and I’m looking forward to visiting SpaceX in Hawthorne, (California) next Thursday.”