WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) Weather in the skies above the Kennedy Space Center in the Florida brightened in the past 24 hours, improving the probability to about 60 percent that astronauts will blast off on an US rocket Wednesday for the first time since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a televised news conference on Tuesday.
"The weather is about 60 percent favorable for launch, which is good news compared to where we were yesterday. We were at 40 percent so the trend is in the right direction," Bridenstine said.
The rocket and crew capsule built by Space X, is slated to lift off Wednesday afternoon on the first crewed mission for the private space-exploration company - a mission that will also mark the first human space flight from the US since NASA retired the shuttle 2011.
In the intervening nine years, the United States paid Russia about $80 million per seat to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA paid SpaceX and Boeing $3.1 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively, to develop new spacecraft under the Commercial Crew program.
For SpaceX, the launch of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley represents the final flight test of the company's Crew Dragon capsule, according to NASA.
