SpaceX 1st Official Crewed Mission Launch Delayed

SpaceX and NASA are getting ready for launching its first official full-crewed space mission on Sunday instead of Saturday due to unstable weather conditions according to CNN.

Four astronauts will be boosted to orbit aboard by a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule; the four astronauts include a Japanese one alongside the three American astronauts. The journey is expected to take 8 hours till the spacecraft reaches the International Space Station (ISS).

Regarding the delay of the launching, "NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Friday afternoon that rough winds at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, the launch site, prompted SpaceX and NASA to push their target launch time to Sunday at 7:27 pm ET," CNN explained.

In addition, NASA emphasized in its official press statement, "Three NASA astronauts — Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker — will be joined by Soichi Noguchi, an astronaut with Japan's space agency, JAXA, on the trip. Whether or not their Sunday launch time sticks will also depend on the weather.

However, the odds of favorable conditions on Sunday appear to be even lower than they were for Saturday, according to the latest forecast from the military's 45th Space Wing, the United States Space Force team officially charged with deeming weather suitable for launch. The Space Wing's latest forecast showed there was a 70% chance of good conditions on Saturday, but that drops to 60% on Sunday.

The launching is the first official full-crewed space mission conducted by a private corporation. A few months ago, SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a historic mission to the International Space Station as a test flight to prove the safety of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.