Due to the bad weather, the launch of the Crew Dragon spaceship had to be postponed to Saturday.
The first flight of a manned US space capsule to the ISS in nine years has been postponed due to poor weather conditions. Around a quarter of an hour before the planned launch, the test was initially canceled on Wednesday, according to the US space agency Nasa. Dark clouds could be seen above the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida and it was raining lightly again and again, and there was also concern about lightning. In advance, NASA had seen a 60 percent chance of suitable weather conditions.
The start was eagerly anticipated worldwide. US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Florida to watch the launch live on site.
A next attempt to start could take place on Saturday. Then the US space travelers Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley should try again to launch to the ISS with a “Falcon 9” rocket in a “Crew Dragon” space capsule. The safety of astronauts is Nasa’s top priority, Nasa boss Jim Bridenstine commented on the short message service Twitter after the move.
It is the last flight test for the “Crew Dragon” developed by the private space company SpaceX. SpaceX was founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk. The company has so far only transported cargo to the ISS.
U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley during a test on March 30, 2020.
Photo: Keystone
The last time astronauts flew to the ISS in the summer of 2011 was on the US space shuttle “Atlantis”. The US space agency Nasa then mothballed its space shuttle fleet for cost reasons and has since been dependent on Russia for flights to the ISS. At around 80 million euros per flight in a Russian Soyuz capsule, this was not only expensive, but also scratched the ego a lot.
In fact, NASA’s own flights from the U.S. to the ISS had already been announced for 2017 – due to technical problems, funding difficulties and restructuring after the election of US President Trump, the project was postponed.
(SDA / step)
Published: 05/27/2020, 10:05 PM-
