SpaceX, the brainchild of billionaire Elon Musk, is scheduled to blast two astronauts to the International Space Station this afternoon. If the weather permits the launch, and the blast-off is successful, it would be the first time since 2011 that astronauts blasted off from US soil. It would also mark the first time that a private company, using commercially developed technologies, sent humans into space.
The mission comes after a March 2019 test in which SpaceX successfully launched an unmanned Falcon-9 rocket to the International Space Station (see SpaceX tweet below for the video from that mission).
SpaceX is working collaboratively with NASA to send humans into space. Two NASA astronauts – Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken – will climb aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon spacecraft for the flight, and lift-off will be taking place from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The only major obstacle to the launch is the weather, with a possibility of storms moving through the area around the time of launch.
The launch is currently scheduled to take place at 4:33 PM ET. Watch live below.
UPDATE: Today’s launch has been canceled over weather concerns. The next attempt at launch will be on Saturday.
In March 2019, Crew Dragon completed its first demonstration mission – an end-to-end flight test without astronauts on board during which it became the first American spacecraft to autonomously dock with the @space_station pic.twitter.com/2BBjtISUaU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2020