| A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket purges fuel after prior to the aborted launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida |
SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, was forced by foul weather to scrub a planned launch on Wednesday of two Americans into orbit from Florida, a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from US soil in nine years.
The countdown was halted less than 17 minutes before the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, propelling Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station. The next launch window is set for Saturday afternoon.