ABC Scraps Astronaut Wives Club's Summer Debut, Plans Midseason Premiere

The countdown to The Astronaut Wives Club‘s blast-off is temporarily on pause.

ABC has decided to hold the period drama — originally scheduled to bow this July — until midway through the 2014-2015 season, TVLine has confirmed.

As first reported by our sister site Deadline, the network has halted production while the series’ concept is expanded.

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Club is penned by Gossip Girl‘s Stephanie Savage and follows a group of women who support their star-bound husbands during the 1960s space race. The action originally centered on the wives of the Mercury astronauts; it will now more closely follow Lily Koppel’s 2013 bestseller and chronicle the lives of the Gemini and Apollo mission crews’ spouses, as well.

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In February, Club received a direct-to-series order from the Alphabet Network. Its cast includes JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Once Upon a Time), Odette Annable (House) and Desmond Harrington (Dexter).

Savage and her Gossip Girl colleague Josh Schwartz will executive-produce the drama with Len Goldstein (Hart of Dixie) and Michael London (Milk).