PS: the crew will now return to pre-flight quarantine for the safety of the International Space Station and its onboard crew.
Thank you very much for following along even if that was, possibly, a record short Guardian US live blog, in the circumstances. Tricky things, rocket launches.
Do join us again on Saturday afternoon if, as expected, Nasa makes its second attempt at this mission then.
We’ll close this blog down now. For all our coverage of US news, please consider clicking here!
Astronauts will leave capsule
Nasa update:
Propellant is offloading and @NASA_Astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug are preparing to exit the vehicle. pic.twitter.com/q4VAwK5o9Q
— NASA (@NASA) May 27, 2020
Trump was on the Space Coast for the launch
Donald Trump is still at the Kennedy Space Center, having traveled there earlier from the White House.
Vice-president Mike Pence is also there in Florida and was seen out and about in public wearing a face mask, because of the coronavirus crisis.
It’s not clear what time the presidential party will head out after the abrupt cancellation of today’s launch of the Nasa-SpaceX partnership rocket and capsule, with the International Space Station as the destination.
Updated
Things looked a lot rosier a little earlier. But it is not a huge surprise that the launch didn’t happen on schedule. Basically, it happens.
Rocket launches are precarious things. If May 30 doesn’t look good then there is a chance the craft could launch on Sunday, May 31.
WATCH: NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have boarded the new SpaceX Dragon capsule ahead of their launch into orbit. https://t.co/MQD567KRtN pic.twitter.com/0VIVaFTPKV
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 27, 2020
No precise reason given yet for Nasa/SpaceX mission being scrapped.
The next window scheduled for an attempt is May 30.
Thunder and lightning had been moving through the area in recent hours and although there was optimism the launch time would coincide with a good weather window, in the last minutes that was not the case.
Here’s Nasa again:
"We are not going to launch today."
— NASA (@NASA) May 27, 2020
Due to the weather conditions, the launch is scrubbing. Our next opportunity will be Saturday, May 30 at 3:22pm ET. Live #LaunchAmerica coverage will begin at 11am ET. pic.twitter.com/c7R1AmLLYh
Launch scrubbed
The weather has made its statement. Today’s launch into space is off at Cape Canaveral.
Updated
"We are go for launch"
Guardian US is streaming the scheduled launch live. Here’s Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine moments ago.
We are GO FOR LAUNCH! 🚀 🚀 🚀 @SpaceX teams will start loading rocket grade kerosene then liquid oxygen for the 1st and 2nd stages of the Falcon 9 rocket that will #LaunchAmerica
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 27, 2020
Crew Dragon will go to internal power 5 minutes before liftoff. https://t.co/Djy13o0Bty
Updated
No going back now....
Here’s Nasa’s tweet with a clip of the crew arm retracting from the rocket.
Crew Access Arm Retracted.#LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/G6Wksbxbt0
— NASA (@NASA) May 27, 2020
“We are on the cusp of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil yet again,” said Jim Bridenstine, the Nasa administrator, who referred to today’s planned launch as “the big show”.
“This time we’re doing it differently than we’ve ever done it before. Nasa is not going to purchase, own and operate the hardware the way we used to. We are partnering with commercial industry with the intent that they would go get customers that are not Nasa, drive down our costs and increase the access to space.”
Closer to blast-off - optimism spreading
Gray skies, thunderstorms and even a tornado warning made for a depressing scene at the Kennedy Space Centre as the countdown continued, but mission managers remained optimistic of an on-time launch at 4.33pm, Richard Luscombe writes from Florida, for the Guardian.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are strapped into their seats aboard the Dragon crew capsule that might, or might not, blast off today for the International Space Station. Launch director Mike Taylor told them he was monitoring a large collection of heavy clouds moving east from Orlando, that he said would be the “decision gate” for a final go-no go call before fuelling is set to begin about 3.45pm. But he said they appeared to be “eroding”.
The weather appears to be the only obstacle remaining to be overcome. SpaceX headquarters reports that the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are technically sound and all systems are “go for launch”.
Air Force One has just flown low over the space centre, giving Donald Trump a close-up view of the launchpad as he arrived to watch the launch.
SpaceX managers have taken another launch poll and decided to go ahead with fueling. This is a good sign - it means most of the traditional constraints to launch have been cleared. The weather is “trending in the right direction” SpaceX says, but it’s still not completely a done deal.
US astronauts to return to Space from US soil for first time in almost a decade, blast-off expected shortly
Good afternoon, Guardian US readers and blog fans, we’re going to run a live blog to cover the historic launch that’s scheduled for just past the half hour of the NASA-SpaceX partnership blasting two American astronauts into Space from US soil. Stay tuned for up-to-the-minute developments over the next few hours.
Here’s what’s happening:
- Nasa, in partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, plans to launch Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4.33pm ET (US Eastern Time), carrying two American astronauts on their way to the International Space Station.
- Not since the retirement of Nasa’s space shuttle fleet in 2011 has the US possessed the capability to send its own astronauts into orbit on US kit from American soil, and the success of this mission, formally known as SpaceX Demo-2, is likely to shape the direction of the space agency’s near-Earth ambitions for a generation.There are weather worries ahead of blast-off.
- The decision was made this morning to keep the launch on track, but everyone will be on edge until the last minute. Tropical thunderstorms have been forecast and there was even a tornado warning a little earlier.Donald Trump and Melania Trump are attending the launch. The president just retweeted a Nasa post saying: “History is about to be made.”
- Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are the lucky pair in the capsule, blasting off from a coronavirus pandemic-ridden, climate crisis-fried Earth into Space because...Space is the final frontier.
