NASA and SpaceX cited forecasts for windy conditions in the Atlantic Ocean and pushed back the Crew-1 launch of four astronauts to Sunday evening from Saturday.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., Nov.13 (UPI) — Citing a forecast for windy conditions in the Atlantic Ocean, NASA and SpaceX have pushed back the Crew-1 launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station to Sunday evening from Saturday. Liftoff on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket now is planned for 7:27 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center, with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi on board. Winds at sea hampered recovery operations, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said via Twitter on Friday afternoon. SpaceX intends to recover the first-stage booster for the Falcon 9 rocket on a barge, while any abort of the mission would necessitate having the capsule land at sea. A Space Force forecast for the Sunday attempt shows a 50% chance of poor weather conditions — chiefly clouds and rain — that could cause another delay. NASA officials said Wednesday would be the next potential date. The launch delay from Saturday means the crew’s flight time to the space station will tripled 27 hours from 8 1/2 hours. “The crew will actually go to sleep in Dragon and wake up and then jump into the rendezvous profile to dock for the [space] station,” said Norm Knight, NASA’s deputy manager for flight operations. The launch represents a major step forward in the advent of human commercial spaceflight, Bridenstine and other government officials said. “This [launch] is what happens when you add a drop or two of rocket fuel to ingenuity,” Stephen Dickson, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a press conference at the space center Friday.
