Trump thanks NASA, SpaceX for 'hard work & leadership' after weather delays mission

After the bad weather conditions forced the crew to call-off the ‘historic’ mission of ‘#LaunchAmerica’, US President Donald Trump ,who was there to witness the liftoff, thanked both NASA and SpaceX for “hard work” as well as “leadership”. Even though the mission was cancelled just 16 minutes before the scheduled take-off time of 4:33 pm ET on May 27, Trump said that he is “looking forward” to join the launch which has now been postponed to May 30 at 3:22 pm ET. 

US First Lady Melania Trump also acknowledged the rescheduling of the momentous mission that had millions glued to the live stream of the launch across social media platforms. She noted that the safety of the crew members who were chosen for the mission “must come first” and even supported the decision of postponing the launch to another time when it can happen safely without any threats posed by the weather. 

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NASA chief on mission delay

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine who had previously hailed the NASA-SpaceX Dragon Crew mission as “Herculean task” announced the postponement of the launch citing "safety" of the crew members. According to him, it was the “top priority” to ensure that US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken who had already buckled up for the mission were safe. 

The weather conditions had started sounding an alarm hours before the scheduled takeoff at 4:33 pm ET on May 27. However, Hurley Behnken had buckled up in the Dragon Crew capsule on the top of 230-foot SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to ‘#LaunchAmerica’. As of now, NASA informed that the “propellant is offloaded” and the entire launch escape system is “disarmed” while both Hurley and Behnken are safely out of the capsule. 

With this venture, NASA would launch its first crewed mission from US soil in almost 10 years (since 2011). This is also the first time that it had allowed a private company like Elon Musk's SpaceX, to run the entire show but the weather conditions have delayed the plans for now.

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