Launch of officials announced at4:17 p.m. Wednesday, bad weather would prevent a SpaceX rocket and capsule from taking off from a launch pad in Florida, transporting NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on the first crewed space flight to take off from the ground American in almost a decade.
There are additional launch windows this Saturday and Sunday, said a NASA spokesperson. The next attempt will be at 3:22 p.m. Saturday.
There was a 50% chance that the flight would be "cleaned up" or postponed due to weather conditions from Wednesday morning. Rain along the flight path and the development of thunderstorms in the afternoon in the vicinity were the main concerns of the launch, as Florida has been facing heavy rain due to tropical disturbance in recent days .
In the event that problems arise with the rocket after takeoff, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule has the ability to detach from the rocket and make astronauts fly safely. But to ensure that they will have a safe splash, SpaceX must monitor weather conditions across a large swath of the Atlantic Ocean to prepare for any possible abandonment scenario.
The 45th Space Wing, a branch of the military that oversees all rocket launches on the East Coast, monitors the weather and shares information with NASA and SpaceX.
The launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft is expected to continue this weekend despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which has blocked private and government operations in the United States. NASA says it must continue its mission to keep the International Space Station, a giant laboratory in orbit, fully staffed by American astronauts.
Space agency chief Jim Bridenstine also said he hoped the launch would inspire fear and uplift the general public during the current health crisis.
On the ground in Florida, local authorities were preparing for an expected influx of spectators who were to gather on nearby beaches, which recently reopened after weeks of foreclosure in the middle of the battle against Covid-19. But NASA did not receive any visitors to the launch site. A few dozen journalists were allowed to cover the launch from the Kennedy Space Center press area, but strict social distancing policies and guidelines for wearing masks have been implemented. Bridenstine organized most of the telephone briefings, for example, and in-person interviews were conducted one by one with press teams.
The launch is also intended to serve as a sort of litmus test for NASA's push to partner more broadly with the private sector.
SpaceX developed Crew Dragon as part of NASA's commercial crew program, which for the first time in the history of the space agency has outsourced much of the design, development and testing of new human-rated spacecraft to the private sector. NASA awarded fixed-price contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to do the job, but the move was not without controversy, particularly at the start of the commercial crew program. But if the SpaceX flight is a success, it could be considered a huge victory for the people of NASA who hope to rely more broadly on similar contracts to help achieve the goals of the space agency.
Bridenstine, for example, hopes to rely heavily on partnerships with the private sector to achieve the space agency's ambitious goal of landing American astronauts on the moon in 2024.
"Ultimately, what we are trying to achieve is to have many suppliers who compete on cost, innovation and security. And then NASA can be a customer, a customer of many customers, and we already know that it will save a ton of money in the long run, "Bridenstine told Rachel Crane of CNN Business.
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