Trump's shutdown is keeping US astronauts on the ground

The first step towards getting US astronauts flying on an American rocket was scheduled for next week, but NASA announced today that the government shutdown will delay the widely anticipated SpaceX test flight until February.

The US space agency hired Elon Musk’s SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing to develop a commercial transportation service to bring astronauts to orbit. This would replace the space shuttle that was cancelled in 2011 and the Russian-made Soyuz rockets that have carried astronauts to the International Space Station since then.

The program began in earnest in 2012, but the hoped-for flight date of 2017 is long past, thanks in no small part to previous under-funding by Congress, according to the Government Accountability Office.

2019 is intended to be the year of US human spaceflight: Both Boeing and SpaceX have scheduled un-crewed and crewed test flights, with SpaceX’s uncrewed flight, Demo-1, previously scheduled for Jan. 17. More important than setting dates on the calendar are the completed vehicles SpaceX and Boeing are bringing to the launch pads.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/trumps-shutdown-is-keeping-us-astronauts-on-the-ground/ar-BBS4ngI?li=BBnb4R7

No space force for you.