‘No decision’ on Next Launch Attempt for Historic SpaceX-NASA Mission

The final decision to launch SpaceX 's landmark mission to the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon will take place after the weather assessment that morning, NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine said Friday.

Fears of a lightning strike postponed Wednesday 's initial take-off attempt on what would have been the first crew rocket launch from U.S. soil in almost a decade, and the first commercial company to do so.

“No decision on weather right now for Saturday’s test flight of @SpaceX’s #CrewDragon spacecraft. Will reassess in the morning,” tweeted Bridenstine.

Earlier in the day, NASA said the chances of Saturday's launch at 3:22 p.m. Eastern Time (1922 GMT) were 50%. At present, the weather forecast predicts a thunderstorm.

The next window, which is calculated by the relative location of the launch site at the space station, is Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1900 GMT), and fair weather is expected.

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, former military test pilots who joined the Space Agency in 2000, are to fire a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Pad 39A.

The same launch pad was used by Neil Armstrong and his Apollo 11 crewmates on their historic journey to the Moon, as NASA seeks to revive excitement around human space exploration ahead of a planned return to Earth’s natural satellite and then Mars.

The mission comes despite shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with the crew in quarantine for more than two weeks.

NASA has urged crowds to stay away from Cocoa Beach, the traditional viewing spot — but that did not deter many space fans on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, who flew in for the previous launch attempt, is expected to attend again.

– Triumph for SpaceX –

NASA has had to pay Russia for use of its Soyuz rockets to take its astronauts to space ever since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 and the decision was taken to shift focus to commercial partners for missions in low Earth orbit.

The mission is a defining moment for SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a goal of tearing up the rules to produce a lower-cost alternative to human spaceflight.

By 2012, it had become the first private company to dock a cargo capsule at the ISS, resupplying the station regularly ever since.

Two years later, NASA ordered the next step: to transport its astronauts there by adapting the Dragon capsule.

The US Space Agency has invested more than $3 billion to SpaceX to plan , develop, evaluate and service the reusable spacecraft for six potential space round trips.

The project has experienced delays, explosions, and parachute problems — but even so, SpaceX has beaten up its competitor, Boeing 's aerospace giant.

Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock with the ISS about 19 hours after take-off, for a duration that is yet to be finalized, but likely around the beginning of August.

Wednesday's planned flight was scrubbed 17 minutes before blastoff due to elevated amounts of atmospheric electricity that may have caused a lightning strike on the rocket.

Source: AFP