NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that tonight’s launch is going ahead - despite a 50% chance of rain.
The mission will see astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley launched into space on board a Falcon 9 rocket, on a 400 kilometre journey to the International Space Station.
It comes three days after a first launch attempt, which was cancelled at the last minute due to poor weather conditions.
While many fans have been worried that the second attempt launch could be cancelled too, NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that tonight’s launch is very much on.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, tweeted: “We are moving forward with launch today. Weather challenges remain with a 50% chance of cancellation. #LaunchAmerica.”
And SpaceX added: “All systems go for Crew Dragon’s test flight with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug. Teams are keeping an eye on weather.”
Speaking ahead of today’s launch attempt, NASA revealed that there’s around a 50% risk of poor weather conditions, including thunderstorms.
NASA said: “The U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 40% chance of favourable weather conditions for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 launch.
“The primary weather concerns for launch are flight through precipitation, anvil and cumulus clouds.”
NASA and SpaceX decided to cancel Wednesday’s launch with just 17 minutes to spare, despite the fact that conditions looked to be clearing up.
John Insprucker, SpaceX’s principal interrogation engineer, explained: “We do the flight analysis assuming that the temperatures of the propellants are below a certain amount, so that we know how much performance is available to the rocket — how much margin we're going to have.
"Once you get into propellant loading at T-35 minutes, you have to go as soon as you get to zero.”
The second attempt launch will take place at 15:22 EDT (20:22 BST), and Mirror Online will be covering the event live. Make sure you check back in then!
