SpaceX Postpones Launch Of Four More Astronauts to Space Station Due To Northeastern Storm

 HAWTHORNE (CBSLA/CNS) - SpaceX postponed the launch of four more NASA astronauts to the International Space Station due to inclement weather.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was originally scheduled to depart from Kennedy Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 11:21 p.m. pacific time on Saturday.

But due to a powerful storm in the Northeast that is causing strong winds and waves in the Atlantic Ocean, the Hawthorne based company is now targeting a backup launch window, which opens Tuesday at 10:10 p.m. California time.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 30: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon on launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center after its scheduled launch was delayed on October 30, 2021 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Unfavorable weather conditions along the flight path have delayed the Kennedy Space Center liftoff until early Wednesday for the Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Flying aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance will be NASA astronauts Raja Chari, mission commander; Tom Marshburn, pilot; and Kayla Barron, mission specialist. Also aboard will be European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, also a mission specialist.

The astronauts have been dubbed Crew-3, as part of SpaceX's third official manned flight to the space station. They will be greeted upon arrival by the four-member crew of the last manned SpaceX flight, Crew-2, who have been aboard the station since April.

That crew -- NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet -- are expected to return to Earth in early November aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour.

McArthur, who grew up in Northern California, is a UCLA graduate in aerospace engineering, and she earned a doctorate in oceanography at UC San Diego, where she was a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In November 2020, SpaceX sent its first official crew to the space station in a separate Dragon spacecraft, dubbed Resilience.

SpaceX's first manned mission to the space station occurred last summer with the launch of two astronauts from Cape Canaveral in the Endeavour capsule, a flight that marked the first manned mission to launch from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle program was retired. But that trip was technically dubbed a demonstration flight to test the capabilities of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

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