DM-2 delayed

May 27th, 4:32 pm EST, the Crew Dragon failed to launch after poor weather at Cape Canaveral.

The stage was set, the rocket was primed and the astronauts were sealed inside the Dragon capsule. Foul weather then forced them out of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and back to their beach bungalow to wait for the storms to pass. The next attempt is scheduled to be Saturday, May 30th at 3:32 pm EST. Though things still aren't looking good for the weather to cooperate for the weekend. The next attempt after that would be Sunday, but the same bad weather issue is a constant there too.

This launch, the return to crewed missions once again from American soil ends a long nine year reliance on Russia to send our astronauts to space. Since the last flight of shuttle Atlantis we have not seen astronauts launch from the United States. The importance? we will no long have to pay Russia to carry our crews to the International Space Station and once again command a crewed space presence.

NASA has calculated the odds of loss of crew or LOC is 1-in-276 which exceeds the Commercial Crew Programs requirement threshold of 1-in-270. The astronauts chosen to fly first, Doug Hurley, and Robert Behnken, both shuttle veterans with Hurley as the last pilot of the shuttle program, touching Atlantis down for the last time back in 2011. This will also be the first time only two astronauts have launched from the U.S. since STS-4 in 1982. Since then there has always been three or more going up together.

The mission for DM-2 is intended to finish the validation of human rated spaceflight operations for SpaceX with the Commercial Crew Program and NASA. Launching atop a Falcon 9 rocket they crew will test the Dragon spacecraft's capabilities and dock at the ISS. Once reaching the ISS they two will join the crew of Expedition 63 from anywhere between thirty to ninety days bringing the latest the Dragon will return to Earth is August 28th 2020.

Recovery of the Rocket components itself is a new era in human space flight. For the first time ever the rocket booster carrying the astronauts into orbit will return to Earth and land on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic ocean. Over the past several years SpaceX has perfected their booster landings and has successfully recovered over 50 first stage boosters. The Dragon capsule when it returns carrying the astronauts will splash down in either the Atlantic ocean or the Gulf of Mexico where the GO Navigator, a SpaceX boat will recover the crew/capsule.