Elon Musk may have had his hopes of launching a manned rocket into space scuppered earlier this week, but SpaceX will be giving it another go this evening.
Wednesday's launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida was postponed due to thunderstorms, being rescheduled to this evening.
The launch is scheduled to take place at 8.22pm Irish time, with the rocket set to be visible over the Irish skylines approximately 15 minutes later. It will then come back into our view a second time at around 10.15pm.
You can also watch live coverage of the launch here.
All systems go for Crew Dragon’s test flight with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug. Teams are keeping an eye on weather. Webcast will go live at ~11:00 a.m. EDT → https://t.co/bJFjLCilmc pic.twitter.com/AXDGNfqv0K
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2020
Should this evening's effort go ahead, it will be the first time in almost a decade that a manned rocket has taken off on US soil. The last time came in 2011, NASA's final space shuttle flight.
This would not be the only piece of history made.
With the rocket being made by Elon Musk's SpaceX, this would mark the first occasion that a commercially private entity have carried Americans into space. The mission is a part of NASA's effort to get private companies to help enter space travel, having awarded almost $8billion to SpaceX and Boeing to develop rockets over the past number of years.
However, there is a chance the weather could also scupper tonight's launch. If that is the case, they are likely to have a third attempt sometime tomorrow.
