Elon Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX was set for a repeat attempt at launching two Americans into orbit on Saturday from Florida for a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years.
Elon Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX was set for a repeat attempt at launching two Americans into orbit on Saturday from Florida for a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years.
The mission’s first launch try on Wednesday was called off with less than 17 minutes remaining on the countdown clock due to stormy weather around the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
The forecast for Saturday was likewise precarious. Mission managers plan to make an earlier decision on weather hazards in a bid to avoid unnecessarily wearing out the crew with another suit-up and full day of launch preparations.
“Back-to-back wet dress rehearsals” disrupt the astronauts’ sleep cycles, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine told a Friday news conference.
Forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at 50-50 for the liftoff.
Barring weather or other unforeseen problems, the 24-story-tall SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is due to lift off at 3:22 p.m. ET, propelling astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aloft on a 19-hour ride to the International Space Station.
They will be carried there inside the newly designed Crew Dragon capsule, making its first flight into orbit with humans aboard.
The @Space_Station will be visible across Canadian skies again tonight. If @SpaceX‘s Crew #Dragon launches this afterno