Historic SpaceX Rocket Launch to International Space Station Postponed (VIDEO)

SpaceX Rocket Launch Postponed
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In the afternoon of Wednesday, May 27, two NASA astronauts, Douglas G. Hurley and Robert L. Behnken, were scheduled to travel in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was set for 4:33 p.m. ET, and they were monitoring the weather, which did turn out to be a problem as expected.

Once it became clear that the weather would not clear in time — with 16 minutes and 54 seconds left on the clock before the scheduled launch — launch director Mike Taylor called it off. (Watch the video below.)

The launch has now been postponed to 3:22 p.m. ET on Saturday, with 3 p.m. ET on Sunday the next possibility.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX built the Falcon 9 rocket and its Crew Dragon spacecraft. This will be the first U.S. manned space mission since 2011 (when NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended).