Bad weather spoils SpaceX’s historic crew launch

• The company’s postponement came after electrified clouds took over Cape Canaveral, Florida, the area where Falcon 9 rocket is meant to take off.

With 17 minutes remaining in the historic event, SpaceX postponed its first crewed flight to space on Wednesday afternoon due to bad weather in Florida.

The two passengers on board the capsule — NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — will try again on Saturday, May 30th.

“Not quite going to make it for this,” one person said over the mission control audio leading up to the flight.

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

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2020

As per details, the company postponement came after electrified clouds took over Cape Canaveral, Florida, the area where Falcon 9 rocket is meant to take off.

The clouds are particularly dangerous for a launch. If a rocket flies close enough, lightning could strike the vehicle, causing damage that could harm the mission.

Mission control gave the astronauts the bad news. “Unfortunately, we’re not going to launch today,” one engineer told the crew. “It was a great effort by the team, and we understand, and we’ll meet you there,” Hurley said in response.

SpaceX will now try again to launch Behnken and Hurley at 3:22PM ET on Saturday. NASA and SpaceX’s coverage will begin at 11AM ET.