The countdown began this morning for the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon Demo-2, a mission that will send NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

The craft was set to launch today at 4:33 p.m. EST.

American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and fly to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. The last such launch came in July 2011 and became the final mission of NASA’s space shuttle program.

Unfortunately the launch was scrubbed at around t-minus 17 minutes due to bad weather.

Lightning strikes were spotted near the launch pad earlier on Wednesday and a tornado warning was issued near Kennedy Space Center.

Thick clouds, some lightning and thunder strikes at the launch pad. A few minutes ago, we heard an alert go off warning of severe weather. BUT it can still pass before liftoff.
Astronauts Bob and Doug just strapped in to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
2.5 hours to liftoff time pic.twitter.com/hNvTdgYWOC

— Jackie Wattles (@jackiewattles) May 27, 2020

The backup launch day is Saturday, May 30th at 3:22 PM ET.

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