--- title: "Breaking: SpaceX Scrubs Historic Launch Due to Bad Weather" description: "SpaceX and NASA had to scrub their historic launch to the International Space Station this afternoon due to severe weather hitting the coast." date: "2020-05-27" modified: "2020-05-27" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-scrubs-historic-launch-bad-weather" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" tags: - "crew dragon" - "NASA" - "SpaceX" - "the digest" --- # Breaking: SpaceX Scrubs Historic Launch Due to Bad Weather ![]() *\Image: SpaceX\* SpaceX and NASA [had to scrub]() their historic launch to the International Space Station this afternoon [due to bad weather](). Officials deemed the weather to be unsafe for liftoff with just 16 minutes left on the countdown. https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1265739654810091520 The culprit: the "strength of electric fields in the atmosphere" was deemed too high in the nearby skies. "Unless you can give us another 10 minutes (beyond T-0) we're not going to get there today," a SpaceX official could be heard on NASA's official stream. But a hard 4:33 pm "instantaneous launch window" meant the entire launch had to be delayed. NASA and SpaceX have set alternative launch windows for 3:22 pm EDT on Saturday, May 30, and 3 pm EDT on Sunday, May 31. Launching astronauts requires the weather at the launch site to be clear enough for takeoff, and for ocean waters at multiple possible splashdown sites to also be calm. The news comes shortly after SpaceX [retracted]() the crew access arm and started fueling its Falcon 9 rocket. That's to ensure that NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will be on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, can be recovered safely if they need to make an emergency landing. At 10 a.m. this morning, the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, the unit in charge of monitoring the weather near NAS’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, [said that a low pressure system]() could "threaten the Space Coast with showers and thunderstorms this afternoon." Earlier today, tropical storm Bertha [made landfall]() on South Carolina’s coast, the second named storm before the official start of 2020’s Atlantic hurricane season. Severe weather has put astronauts being launched into space at risk before. Lightning damaged nonessential components of the Saturn V rocket being used during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, [according to the *Washington Post*](). If all goes according to plan, the demonstration launch will mark the first time astronauts have launched to orbit from American soil in nearly a decade. **More on the launch:** *[NASA CLEARS SPACEX CREW DRAGON MISSION FOR LIFTOFF]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()