After the suspense, the first manned flight of the American company SpaceX was postponed from Wednesday May 27 to Saturday May 30 due to bad weather. Until the last minute, however, two NASA astronauts were installed in the capsule at the top of the rocket which was to take them to the International Space Station (ISS).

"Dragon, SpaceX: unfortunately, we're not going to launch today," SpaceX launch director at Kennedy Space Center in Florida announced to astronauts aboard Crew Dragon, 17 minutes before scheduled take-off time.

"It was a great team effort, we understand," said astronaut Doug Hurley, who had been inside for two hours, strapped into his seat next to teammate Bob Behnken, atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The two men should have docked at the ISS on Thursday.

Too high risk

It took ten minutes for the bad weather to dissipate, according to SpaceX, but the risk posed by rain and lightning was too great, and the shooting window, 4:33 p.m., was strict, in order to coordinate the orbit of Dragon with that of the ISS. The next attempt will be made at 3:22 p.m. Saturday (9:22 p.m. in France).

"Everyone is surely a little disappointed," said Doug Hurley later, sympathizing with the ground teams, who have been waiting for this moment for years. President Donald Trump had come to witness in person what NASA calls the dawn of a new space era.

This step is the embodiment of eighteen years of efforts for SpaceX. "It's a dream come true, I didn't think it would ever happen," said Elon Musk, who founded the company in 2002 in California, before the scheduled launch. 

Quarantine

Before boarding the capsule, the astronauts were able to say goodbye to their families. To their two young sons, Elon Musk promised, "We have done everything we can to get your dads back."

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley had been quarantined for two weeks. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the flight was maintained and tourists and enthusiasts settled on the beaches of the Florida coast.

Crew Dragon's mission is to catch up with the ISS, 400 km above sea level, where it could remain docked until August. If the capsule returns and is certified safe, the Americans will no longer depend on the Russians to access space: since 2011, the Soyuz were the only space taxis available. Routes from Florida will become regular, with four astronauts on board. And SpaceX will be free to organize space trips for tourists, for a ticket that will probably cost a few tens of millions of dollars instead.

With AFP

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