The SpaceX Demo-2 launch was heavily anticipated and was all set to liftoff at 4:33 PM EST from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, but unfortunately, that won’t be happening, at least not yet. The official SpaceX account and NASA’s official account both confirmed that the launch is being scrubbed for today due to weather conditions that are affecting the flight path. Now, that’s the bad news, but this is only a temporary setback, as they’ve already identified May 30th at 3:22 pm EST as another time they can launch, and once again the astronauts at the helm will be Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. They will guide the Crew Dragon spacecraft to its International Space Station destination with help from a Falcon 9 rocket, and once it happens it will be the first time in nearly a decade that American astronauts will launch into space in a rocket built in the United States.
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Coronavirus measures were taken for the initial launch date and will likely still be in effect on May 30th, so you won’t see crowds gathered at the Kennedy Space Center to celebrate the launch. That said, they will once again stream the event on social media, so you can still see it all take place.
The SpaceX account let fans know the news on Twitter, writing “Standing down from launch today due to unfavorable weather in the flight path. Our next launch opportunity is Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC”
Standing down from launch today due to unfavorable weather in the flight path. Our next launch opportunity is Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC
โ SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2020
NASA followed suit, writing on Twitter “We are not going to launch today. Due to the weather conditions, the launch is scrubbing. Our next opportunity will be Saturday, May 30 at 3:22pm ET. Live #LaunchAmerica coverage will begin at 11am ET.”
If you’re unfamiliar with SpaceX, you can find part of their official mission statement below.
“We are not going to launch today.”
Due to the weather conditions, the launch is scrubbing. Our next opportunity will be Saturday, May 30 at 3:22pm ET. Live #LaunchAmerica coverage will begin at 11am ET. pic.twitter.com/c7R1AmLLYh
โ NASA (@NASA) May 27, 2020
“Building on the achievements of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is working on a next generation of fully reusable launch vehicles that will be the most powerful ever built, capable of carrying humans to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.”
We’ll have to wait a bit to see this happen, but it seems it will be worth the wait.