Kennedy Space Center (United States) (AFP)
The decision to launch or not the first manned flight of the American company SpaceX on Saturday afternoon will be taken the same morning, after observation of the weather, announced Friday the boss of NASA.
For fear of lightning, the first attempt to launch the Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) with two astronauts on board was canceled Wednesday, only 17 minutes before scheduled takeoff time.
"No weather decision has yet been made for Saturday's test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. We will reassess the situation tomorrow morning," tweeted NASA chief Jim Bridenstine.
The launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule at its summit, is theoretically scheduled for Saturday at 3:22 p.m. (7:22 p.m. GMT) from the Kennedy Center, from where the astronauts who walked on the Moon took off in the 1960s and 1970. The two astronauts are Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Earlier on Friday, NASA said the probability of a launch is 50%. The weather forecast for the moment of the storm. The next launch window would be Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT).
The flight was maintained despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tourists and space enthusiasts were installed Wednesday on the beaches of the coast of Florida, including the famous Cocoa Beach, to attend the first attempt to launch.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump came to witness in person what NASA calls the dawn of a new space era, where the United States entrusts to the private sector the transport of its astronauts, and at the same time regain access to the space they had lost in 2011 with the end of the space shuttles.
The President has indicated that he will return on Saturday.
© 2020 AFP