SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to space station delayed to Friday by weather
CBSN
Launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station has been delayed 24 hours to Friday because of bad weather in the Atlantic Ocean where the crew could be forced to ditch in an emergency, NASA announced Wednesday.
Originally scheduled for liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at 6:11 a.m. EDT Thursday, the flight was reset for 5:49 a.m. Friday, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries pad 39A in line the space station's orbital path — a requirement for spacecraft trying to rendezvous with a target in low-Earth orbit. "We're going to have to delay a day, we're not going to be able to launch tomorrow morning," spaceport Director Bob Cabana told reporters. "Although the weather's probably going to look great here at the launch site, we're worried about those downrange winds and wave heights in case of an abort should that happen.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.