The Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch on Sunday at 7:27 p.m. Eastern time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Television will broadcast coverage beginning at 3:15 p.m. Or you can watch it in the video player at the top of this page.
In its latest weather forecast issued on Sunday morning, the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron gives a 50 percent chance of favorable conditions at the launchpad. The administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, said on Twitter Sunday just before 6 p.m. Eastern time that weather conditions were favorable for an on-time liftoff.
SpaceX and NASA are also keeping watch farther out in the Atlantic Ocean. The weather and waters there need to be fairly calm in case something goes wrong during the ascent to orbit and the Crew Dragon needs to make an emergency splashdown (adverse weather conditions led to a postponement of the earlier Saturday launch date).
As is customary for Falcon 9 rocket launches, the first stage or booster is to return to Earth and land on a floating platform, and that too requires that the ocean waters to not be too rough. The Crew-1 booster is to refurbished and reused for the next launch of astronauts, scheduled for next spring.
If Sunday’s launch is delayed, there is a backup opportunity on Wednesday.