Weather better for historic SpaceX launch of NASA astronauts

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The SpaceX Falcon 9, with Dragon crew capsule is serviced on Launch Pad 39-A Tuesday, May 26, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Two astronauts will fly on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station scheduled for launch on May 27. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts will blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)David J. Phillip/AP

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The weather is looking up for SpaceX's first astronaut launch, as officials vow to keep crew safety the top priority.

Forecasters say the odds of acceptable conditions have improved to 60% for Wednesday's planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon rocket with two NASA astronauts.

But that doesn't factor in the sea states along the SpaceX Dragon capsule's path to orbit.

SpaceX needs relatively calm waves and wind up the U.S. and Canadian seaboard and across the North Atlantic to Ireland, in case astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken need to make an emergency splashdown.

This will be the first astronaut launch from Florida in nearly a decade, and a first for a private company.