NASA orders rare medical delay in launch of SpaceX mission into space station

Central to the race to peer into distant worlds is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a $1.8 billion complex being built at the Las Campanas observatory

NASA orders rare medical delay in SpaceX launch

NASA announced on Monday a rare, health-related delay in its SpaceX rocket launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

This is the second postponement of the mission in a week,citing an unspecified medical issue with one of the crew. NASA said the issue was "not a medical emergency and not related to COVID-19," but the space agency declined to elaborate on the nature of the problem or say which astronaut was involved.

(Sign up to our Technology newsletter, Today's Cache, for insights on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, business and policy. Click here to subscribe for free.)

In Chile's Atacama desert, stargazers search for alien life and 'dark energy'

In Chile's dry Atacama desert, stargazers are scanning the clear night skies to detect the existence of life on other planets and study so-called 'dark energy,' a mysterious cosmic force thought to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Central to the race to peer into distant worlds is the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a $1.8 billion complex being built at the Las Campanas observatory and which will have a solution 10 times higher than the Hubble space telescope.