ORLANDO, Fla. — On Tuesday, NASA announced that it and SpaceX are pushing back the CRS-25 launch due to ongoing inspections prompted by the discovery of a propellant leak.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was going to launch the company’s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, carrying with it several experiments, earlier this month.

However, when the propellant fuel was being loaded into the Dragon spacecraft during a pre-launch test days before the Friday, June 10 launch, officials say elevated vapor readings of mono-methyl hydrazine were detected.

“The readings were measured in an isolated region of the Draco thruster propulsion system,” NASA spokeswoman Kathleen Haas Ellis explained to Spectrum News at the time.

The propellant had to be taken out from that section of the system so engineers could run inspections.

A joint NASA-SpaceX team of engineers has been working to figure out the source of the issue.

On Tuesday, NASA issued a news release to explain the reason for the new proposed date.

“The new target launch date supports ongoing Dragon spacecraft inspections as well as repair and replacement of any components that could have degraded by exposure to mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) vapor found during testing in early June,” the release said.

Two launch dates were scheduled —  first Tuesday, June 28, and then Sunday, July 10 — but NASA officials said Tuesday that the new liftoff date is no earlier than Thursday, July 14.

The space agency also stated that SpaceX has decided to replace the main parachutes of the nearly 27-foot-tall Dragon spacecraft for this mission.

About the mission

Once the mission does happen, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

In addition to food and other supplies, the Dragon will also carry out various experiments.