CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Despite more storms in the forecast, SpaceX pressed ahead Saturday in its historic attempt to launch astronauts for NASA, a first by a private company.
Forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at 50-50 for the 3:22 p.m. liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — the first launch from the U.S.
with NASA astronauts in nearly a decade. SpaceX and NASA managers monitored the weather not just at Kennedy Space Center, but all the way up the Eastern Seaboard and across the North Atlantic to Ireland.
Waves and wind needed to be within limits in case the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, needed to make an emergency splashdown on the way to orbit.RELATED: Launch Day: SpaceX to make second