SpaceX replaces two rocket motors for next manned flight

SpaceX take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida to the ISS, May 30, 2020. -

Crew-1, SpaceX's mission with a crew on board, will take place on November 14.

Initially, the four astronauts were supposed to leave Earth at the end of October to join the International Space Station (ISS), but the mission was delayed.

A delay caused by an engine failure on the Falcon 9 launcher spotted this October during the dispatch of a Space Force GPS satellite.

The mission was stopped two seconds before the launcher took off, reports

, relayed by

.

That day, two of the new Merlin engines installed on the launcher started early.

This premature operation could have had unfortunate consequences for the Falcon 9 launcher if the malfunction had not been identified and the rocket had not stopped, for safety.

The reddish lacquer involved

After this event, the hardware underwent a careful inspection by SpaceX engineers.

They found "a kind of reddish lacquer blocking a relief valve in each of the two engines," says Clubic.

Upon inspecting the engines of three launchers, SpaceX teams found that five other engines had the same problem.

Two of them were installed on a Falcon 9, the launcher associated with the Crew-1 mission.

These were new engines.

No launcher already in operation was affected by the problem.

It was therefore decided to replace the two engines of the Falcon 9. An intervention which requires at least one week per engine.

It is only on November 10 that NASA will authorize or not the departure of the mission.

That day, a Falcon 9 launcher, fitted with the new engines, will go on mission.

If all goes well, four days later, three Americans and a Japanese will board the ISS.

The astronauts are currently in quarantine.

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