The planned NASA/SpaceX launch out of Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station was nixed on Wednesday due to bad weather.
Thunderstorms and cloudy skies threatened the effort going into Wednesday and with conditions not clearing less than a half hour before the planned launch, the mission was axed.
The attempted launch was the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles in July 2011 that NASA astronauts were meant to take a rocket from American soil with the intention of reaching the International Space Station (ISS).
Despite NASA astronauts crewing the rocket, SpaceX — which built the Falcon 9 rocket carrying its Crew Dragon capsule, which holds the crew — were in charge of mission control.
Webcast of Crew Dragon’s demonstration mission with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug on board the spacecraft is now live → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdKhttps://t.co/aXQUcY4diB
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said shortly before the launch that his goal is to “reignite the dream of space” after a years-long drought for Americans.
Musk took complete responsibility for anything going wrong with the launch — which was viewed by President Donald Trump — despite teaming up with NASA for the mission.
“I’d just like to say if it goes right, it’s credit to the SpaceX/NASA team. If it goes wrong, it’s my fault,” he told CBS News the day before the launch.
NASA astronauts and former military test pilots Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley crewed the spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley are meant to spend one to four months in orbit, depending on how equipment performs, after docking with the ISS.
The next attempt to launch the SpaceX rocket will be on Saturday with takeoff set for 3:22pm Eastern time.
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