NASA-SpaceX Launch Postponed Due To Weather

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL — With weather conditions refusing to clear up Wednesday, NASA and SpaceX called off their afternoon launch of two astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA and SpaceX will try again Saturday at 3:22 p.m. EDT.

The crew will now begin the "scrub sequence," and unload the rocket's propellant, before allowing the astronauts to exit the ship.

A SpaceX rocket was scheduled to boost two NASA astronauts into orbit Wednesday afternoon, the first launch of Americans from the United States in nearly a decade.

Liftoff was set for 4:33 p.m. ET at Kennedy Space Center.

However, Florida weather postponed the mission — as of Wednesday morning, it was raining with low clouds.

To make matters worse, Brevard County, home to the Kennedy Space Center launch site, was briefly under a tornado warning that ended at 2:15 p.m. ET.

“This is a big moment in time,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Associated Press on the eve of the launch. “It's been nine years since we've had this opportunity.”

Coverage for the launch began at noon EDT, with live views of the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule on the launch pad.

The delayed launch puts Elon Musk's SpaceX on the cusp of becoming the first private company to put astronauts in orbit, something achieved by just three countries — Russia, the U.S. and China.

Riding aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will be veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. The test flight will take them to the International Space Station.

Related: SpaceX To Launch 1st U.S. Astronauts Since Space Program Ended

Besides good weather at the launch site, SpaceX needs relatively calm waves and wind up the U.S. and Canadian seaboard and across the North Atlantic to Ireland, in case astronauts Hurley and Behnken need to make an emergency splashdown along the route to orbit.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were at Kennedy Wednesday, where visitors were limited.