Their joint appearance by a giant glass-enclosed "clean room" where engineers were working on a Crew Dragon marked a show of unity following a rare public spat over delays in the project. NASA and SpaceX had previously aimed to launch the Crew Dragon on an initial test flight carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station in 2019. But the company successfully launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon to the International Space Station in March. Under that time frame, the first Starliner manned mission is all but certain to slip into 2020. Bridenstine said the agency was "still buying seats" for ride-alongs aboard Russia's Soyuz as an "insurance policy" against future delays in US crew capsule development.

Source: bd News24 October 11, 2019 05:48 UTC