It's the third time within a year when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has decided to delay contract awards for cargo delivery to the international space station (ISS).

NASA made an announcement on its website that the timetable for picking companies to send supplies and experiments into orbit under the agency's commercial cargo resupply program has been extended to November. According to some industry officials, it was previously scheduled for August or September.

The reason behind the delay appears to be separate launch failures by the only two US companies under contract to send supplies to the space station.

NASA earlier made an announcement in September 2014 that it was looking forward to award contracts for at least a dozen more shipments. That time, the agency was expecting to make contracting decisions by May 2015, but that later delayed to June.

A NASA spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the initial deadline was extended to September in order to have some more time to evaluate proposals.

The deadline was again extended to November, she said earlier this month. She called it a complex procurement. Proposals were submitted by bidders eight months ago.

Industry officials say that NASA needs more time to confirm SpaceX is set for launches. SpaceX has said that it is confident to resume launches and is likely to launch again as early as September. An unusual structural failure stemming from a defective strut caused explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket after takeoff on June 28.