Home » Technology » First commercial astronaut launch SpaceX postponed due to bad weather | NOW

First commercial astronaut launch SpaceX postponed due to bad weather | NOW

The first commercial astronaut launch to the International Space Station, also the first U.S. astronaut launch since 2011, was delayed on Wednesday due to adverse weather conditions. Space company SpaceX is said to take two NASA astronauts to the ISS on Wednesday. A second attempt to launch will be made on Saturday 30 May at 9:22 pm Dutch time.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are due to leave on Wednesday in the commercial capsule Dragon Dragon, developed by the aerospace company of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Thunderstorms have been looming along the coast of Kennedy Space Center, Florida, since Tuesday. On Tuesday, the probability that the launch would go through was already estimated at 60 percent.

Everything seemed to be going well shortly before the launch. The live stream from NASA and SpaceX regularly featured how launch personnel gave the green light for the different phases of launch. The crew was already trapped inside the rocket, fuel supply had begun, and the arm through which astronauts had walked to the capsule had been disconnected.

The weather wouldn’t clear up. There was the possibility that the launch would be delayed for a while, just to wait for it to clear up again. However, no deferral was granted. Instead, it was decided to drop the mission. The astronauts have to wait about an hour for the fuel to be pumped out of the rocket. Then they are allowed to leave the capsule.

If the launch had continued, the capsule would have been visible in the southern sky twenty minutes later in the Netherlands. Here the weather is considerably better than in Florida. The second attempt will not be visible in the Netherlands on Saturday, reports meteor expert Marco Langbroek Twitter.

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