SpaceX Crew Dragon launch postponed for safety reasons

ByJohn Titor

May 29, 2020 Crew Dragon, Elon Musk, Nasa, Space, SPaceX, technology

May 27th was supposed to be an epochal event, especially for the space history of the United States. Yet, due to bad weather, the launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon space taxi has been canceled and postponed to May 30th. To decide to stop the countdown, just a few minutes from the start, it was the red lights that indicated how the weather conditions were unfavorable and not suitable for the safe take-off of the spacecraft.

The specific launch of the Crew Dragon was an event that has been anticipated for nine years by the United states States. A release which should have already been truly special, both since it might have inaugurated the period of private manned flights, also because it would have designated the finish of the Russian monopoly in the transport of astronauts (with the Soyuz) to the International Room Place (ISS). Yet just a few minutes before the start, planned for 16: 33, it was made a decision to postpone the start. The red lighting associated with weather conditions, which must be respected for the launch, did not allow the identified go-ahead for the take-off of the Crew Dragon. Inside fact, they directed out values beyond the limit of the electric areas in the atmosphere, the formation of a storm impair, strong wind, rainfall and the risk of lightning hits on the start area.

“There was concern that if we had proceeded with the launch, we could actually have triggered lightning because of excessive electricity in the atmosphere,”
Jim Bridenstine – NASA Administrator

The experts, in fact, have been monitoring a tropical storm, called Bertha, off the coast of South Carolina for the whole day, assuming a potential storm and bad weather also in the Kennedy Space Center area. “There was concern that if we had proceeded with the launch, we could actually have triggered lightning because of excessive electricity in the atmosphere” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We made the right decision.”

Today's launch was scrubbed due to weather, but #LaunchAmerica is just getting started! 🚀

Our global watch party with @SpaceX continues this Saturday! Join us starting at 11am ET for live coverage. Liftoff is on for 3:22pm ET. Let's do this thing: https://t.co/Y55Xq7g2D2 pic.twitter.com/izxAcPFf6I
— NASA (@NASA) May 28, 2020

The weather conditions for a safe take-off must be perfect, not only on the launch pad, but also in other areas that stretch for miles and miles along the east coast of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean. Weather conditions, those of yesterday, too dangerous to take off the spacecraft. The decision to proceed with the launch or not is governed by a very detailed set of rules acquired over years of experience: for example, as the New York Times says, when the winds exceed a certain threshold or the clouds retain an electric charge that could discharging like lightning, the launch is canceled because the risk of a failure of the spacecraft or the danger to which the crew is exposed is too high.

According to NASA, to postpone a flight in space it is necessary to follow specific criteria: if, for example, the wind above the launching platform exceeds 30 miles per hour. You need to wait 30 minutes after observing lightning about 20 kilometers away from the launch pad or flight path. And again: the launch must be postponed if storm clouds are observed within 20 kilometers of the ramp and wait 15 minutes if specific instruments (field mills) record values above the threshold of electric fields in the atmosphere about 10 kilometers from the ramp. For these meteorological criteria, therefore, the launch of the Crew Dragon was postponed to Saturday 30 May.