Due to a tropical storm off the coast of South Carolina further north, which could pose a risk to astronauts in the event of an emergency water landing
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Lhe launch of SpaceX’s first manned flight has been postponed to Saturday, 17 minutes before the scheduled takeoff time on Wednesday, due to inclement weather, to prevent an accident. The National Hurricane Center has announced the formation of a tropical storm off the coast of South Carolina, further north, which could pose a risk to astronauts in the event of an emergency landing in the Atlantic after takeoff.
Space agency and SpaceX officials have therefore decided to postpone to Saturday, the next possible launch window. “The meeting on the Atlantic weather (Wednesday) morning will determine if we can launch,” tweeted Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, who has been waiting for this moment since the founding of the space start-up in 2002.
“It was a great team effort, but we understand,” said astronaut Doug Hurley, after the launch director told him and his teammate Bob Behnken that the weather would only get better ten minutes after the scheduled start time.
The next attempt on Saturday
It was played to the nearest ten minutes, according to SpaceX, but the rocket was forced to take off at 4.33pm exactly and could not wait this ten minutes for the weather to clear, because the launch time was fixed in order to coordinate the trajectory of the capsule and that of the International Space Station, which the astronauts must join in this demonstration mission.
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