SpaceX delays Crew Dragon's in-flight abort due to poor weather conditions

UPDATE: Liftoff of Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon at 10:30 a.m. ET! The capsule successfully separated from the rocket and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after liftoff.

SpaceX will target Sunday for the next attempt to launch a Crew Dragon capsule on a high-profile abort test after weather forced teams to delay the mission.

"Standing down from (Saturday's) in-flight Crew Dragon launch escape test attempt due to sustained winds and rough seas in the recovery area," SpaceX said via Twitter, noting that Sunday's six-hour launch window will open at 8 a.m.

After Falcon 9 launches from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A, Crew Dragon will simulate an emergency and fire its astronaut-saving abort engines, eventually splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean some 18 miles offshore.

That translates to multiple weather windows: at the pad before liftoff, during flight, and out at sea where recovery teams will be standing by. Weather doesn't have to be perfect for all portions of the test, but should at least be favorable enough to not pose a serious risk. 

Conditions at the opening of Sunday's six-hour window are about 60% "go," according to the Air Force.

"It's really an integrated problem when you look at the weather in this situation," Benji Reed, SpaceX's director of crew mission management, said during a pre-launch briefing at KSC on Friday. "It's not just about the launch and the ascent of the launch vehicle, but in this case we also need to consider what the weather's doing for the abort."

"And we also have to safely recover the vehicle when we get to the ocean, so we have to look at things like wave height and winds speeds as well," he said.

In-flight abort is the last major milestone SpaceX needs to accomplish before Crew Dragon can fly with astronauts to the International Space Station. If successful, it will pave the way for two astronauts to fly sometime in the first half of this year.

Astronauts haven't launched to the ISS from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle program in July 2011.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

Launch Sunday

• Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
• Mission: Crew Dragon in-flight abort test
• Launch Time: 8 a.m.
• Launch Window: Six hours
• Launch Pad: 39A at Kennedy Space Center
• Weather: 60 percent "go"

Tune into floridatoday.com/space for live video and coverage of the in-flight abort test beginning at 6:30 a.m. Sunday.