Historic SpaceX astronaut launch delayed at the last minute

SpaceX's historic mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts has been postponed due to hazardous weather conditions.

The space agency made the announcement just minutes before the scheduled take-off this evening.

Bad weather has prevented the first launch of NASA astronauts from US soil in nine years.

The next mission has been scheduled for this Saturday (May 30) at 3.22pm Eastern Time (10.22am GMT).

A tweet from US-based space agency NASA wrote: "We are not going to launch today."

"Due to the weather conditions, the launch is scrubbing.

"Our next opportunity will be Saturday, May 30."

At 9.20pm BST (4.20pm ET), the countdown clock was held at t-minus 16 minutes and the flight was confirmed as grounded.

SpaceX's launch commander officially scrubbed the launch under safety rules around weather conditions.

Apparently, it was the high chance of lightning that proved fatal for Demo-2.

If commanders had been able to delay the launch by ten minutes, it could have gone ahead, but unfortunately this was not possible.

It had been planned with Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, and US astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were meant to embark on a 19-hour journey on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS).

Strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket, the Crew Dragon would accelerate to more than 17,000mph.

The launch was set to mark the first flight of NASA astronauts from US soil since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011.

On Tuesday, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana said: "I don’t have to tell you all how exciting it is to have the first flight of humans to space from the Kennedy Space Center in nine years."

He added: "Now, rather than rusting away in the salt air, through our partnership with SpaceX, that pad is being used once again, and it’s now for our Commercial Crew Program as well as other missions for SpaceX, and I think that’s absolutely outstanding"

NASA Administrator Jim Bridestine said: "It’s been nine years since we’ve had this opportunity.

"And Bob Cabana, we want to thank you for all the great work you’ve done getting us up to this point, getting the Kennedy Space Center ready.

"Everything is looking good. As of right now, we are ‘go’ for launch."

The launch was greenlit on Monday by NASA's Commercial Crew programme manager Kathy Leduers.

She said: "We're burning down the final paper. All the teams are go and we're continuing the progress toward our mission.

"I'm very proud of the team. We are continuing to be vigilant and careful, and make sure we do this right."

The historic launch has been dubbed Demo-2 and marks SpaceX's biggest challenge yet.