SpaceX rocket launch set for second try

Rocket company SpaceX will make a second attempt in the coming hours on Saturday (May 30) to get Nasa astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit.

Their flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday was postponed because of poor weather at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

Saturday's forecast is not brilliant. The meteorologists say conditions will probably be touch and go again.

The lift-off is scheduled for 19:22 GMT (20:22 BST).

There's huge focus on Hurley's and Behnken's mission because it will mark the first time that the United States has been able to launch its astronauts to the ISS since the retirement of Nasa's space shuttles in 2011.

It will also be the first occasion that the US space agency has used a private company to transport one of its crews to orbit.

The first launch attempt in the week was scrubbed just 16 minutes before the designated launch time. There had been much electrical activity in the air throughout the day, and controllers concluded it wouldn't be prudent to proceed with the flight.

At the moment of postponement, Hurley and Behnken were sitting in their Dragon capsule atop its Falcon rocket with the booster fuels being loaded below them.

The frustration was that the countdown was going so smoothly; engineers had seen no technical issues of concern. The vehicles were in perfect shape to begin their ascent.

If the launch goes ahead, Hurley and Behnken have about a 19-hour flight to the ISS. They'll use that time to try out systems onboard the Dragon capsule, including having a go at manual flying. They'll also need to get some sleep after what will have been a long day.

The duo are expected to stay at the ISS for between one and four months before returning to Earth.

SpaceX, which is run by the tech billionaire Elon Musk, has a $2.6bn contract with Nasa to provide six crew flights to the space station. The first of these is scheduled for the end of August, assuming nothing untoward happens on Hurley's and Behnken's demonstration.

The Boeing company has a similar contract, but it is a year at least behind SpaceX in its development timeline.

(Source: BBC)