The SpaceX rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida, Friday May 29 – AFP
The decision to launch or not the first manned flight of the American company SpaceX Saturday afternoon will be taken the same morning, after observation of the weather, announced Friday the boss of the
Nasa. A decision that will therefore be known in the afternoon French time for a possible takeoff in the evening.
For fear of lightning, the first attempt to launch the Crew Dragon capsule towards the International Space Station (ISS) with two astronauts on board had been canceled on Wednesday, only 17 minutes before the scheduled take-off time.
“No weather decision has yet been made on Saturday’s test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. We will reassess the situation tomorrow morning, “tweeted Jim Bridenstine, chief of NASA.
Distant storms provide a dramatic backdrop to the @SpaceX rocket and #CrewDragon Friday evening at @NASAKennedy as teams prepare for launch of @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken to the @Space_Station! #LaunchAmerica | More ????: https://t.co/8due5jBg5Y pic.twitter.com/vBY7ivmnDe
– NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) May 30, 2020
The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule at its summit, is theoretically scheduled for Saturday at 3:22 p.m. (9:22 p.m. in France) from the Kennedy Center, from where the astronauts who have walked on the Moon in the years will take off 1960 and 1970. The two astronauts are Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Trump expected on the spot
Earlier on Friday, NASA said the probability of a launch is 50%. The weather forecast is for the time of the storm. The next launch window would be Sunday at 3 p.m. (9 p.m. in France).
Tourists and space enthusiasts took to the beaches of Florida’s coastline, including the famous Cocoa Beach, on Wednesday to witness the first launch attempt. On Wednesday, Donald Trump came to witness in person what NASA calls the dawn of a new space era, where the United States entrusts to the private sector the transport of its astronauts, and at the same time regain access to the space they had lost in 2011 with the end of the space shuttles.
The President has said he will return this Saturday.
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