The first crewed launch from American soil in nearly a decade was postponed on Wednesday due to stormy weather.
The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission—set to be the first crewed launch from American soil in nearly a decade—was postponed less than 17 minutes from launch due to stormy weather conditions along Florida's Atlantic coast.
"I know there's a lot of disappointment today, the weather got us," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday."But I also want to say this was a great day for NASA, it was a great day for SpaceX. I think our teams worked together in a really impressive way making good decisions all along. "So here in this particular case we just simply had too much electricity in the atmosphere. There was a concern that if we did launch it could actually trigger lightning. And so we made the right decision." Bridenstine said NASA and SpaceX would not be pressurized into going ahead with the launch if the conditions are not right."I get asked over and over again, is there undue pressure here?" he said."People say to me, with all of the attention of the world on this launch, with all of the VIPs coming, are you going to feel pressure on this launch? "And I will tell you, as I've told our teams, under no circumstances should anybody feel pressure. If we are not ready to go, we simply do not go. I am proud, so proud of our teams working together to make the right decision in this particular case." Moments before launching NASA scrubbed today's launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on May 27, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.Discussing the significance of the event, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino previously told:"This launch represents the realization of a decades' long dream to migrate part of human space exploration to private companies. Up until now it has only been governments that have launched people into space. From now on it will be private companies as well. Similar to when the first commercial airline flights began, I think the world will be changed forever. "Watching the launch will be exciting, but understanding the passion and dedication of the thousands of people that made it possible will be inspiring. It will be a blast of good news which is needed at this difficult time."
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