With each new crew launch from the U.S. comes the inevitable questions: Why all the weather rules? What are the vehicle’s abort modes and how will it perform a launch abort and aim itself to a predetermined location in the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the Kennedy Space Center across to the western Irish coast?
The Crew-1 mission of SpaceX’s Dragon 2 capsule is contending with these questions, with its launch already delayed from Saturday because of weather. The mission is currently set to launch at 19:27 EST (00:27 UTC) on Sunday, 15 November (Monday, 16 November UTC) from LC-39A in Florida to bring Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station.