NASA SpaceX rocket launch hampered by bad weather
The US space agency NASA missed creating history. The first launch of SpaceX has been postponed due to bad weather. A rocket from SpaceX, along with NASA pilots Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken, was scheduled to fly from the Kennedy International Space Station on Wednesday afternoon. This was the first time that a private company was sending astronauts to space instead of the government.
According to NASA, now on May 30, another launching attempt will be made. This will be SpaceX’s second attempt. In a statement issued by NASA just minutes before the launch, it said, ‘We are not going to launch today. The launch is being postponed due to weather conditions. Now the next launch possibility will be on May 30 at 3:22 pm American time. Its live coverage will start at 11 am. The thing to note here is that NASA has expressed the possibility of launching, that is, if the weather is bad, then they may not go ahead with the launch.
Up to four hours before the launch, the launch controllers had given only 50 percent chance of favorable weather. By the time of launch, rain, clouds and storms dominated NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, a good news came after 2 pm, when the weather was up to 60 per cent favorable, but due to the possibility of a tropical storm in the East Coast, the difficulties increased. In such a situation, it was decided to postpone the launch after a few minutes before looking at the weather patterns. This could have been done to protect the rocket from damage due to lightning or storm.
Prior to postponing the launch, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Kathy Lueders said that all preparations for the launch are going well, except for the weather. We just have to control the weather. Water had collected at the launch site due to continuous rain. Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance at SpaceX, said the launch controller team would look at global weather change patterns to determine whether it is safe to launch.
