SpaceX Crew-2 launch moved to Friday due to weather

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station has been moved to Friday due to weather. It was originally supposed to lift off on Thursday morning.

NASA tweeted out the update with less than 24 hours to go until launch time.

"Launch Update  @NASA and @SpaceX now are targeting Friday, April 23 at 5:49 a.m. ET for the launch of the Crew-2 mission to the @Space_Station due to unfavorable weather conditions along the flight path on Thursday."

The U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron said there was an 80% chance of favorable weather on Thursday and a 90% chance of favorable weather on Friday.

RELATED: Launch Forecast: NASA, SpaceX prepare for Friday Crew-2 liftoff

FOX 35 Storm Meteorologist Jayme King also took a look ahead at the weather. Conditions look better, with a 10 percent more chance of launch on Friday than Thursday. The only concern is a possible isolated coastal shower but chances are slim to none.

"Although the weather is probably going to look great here at the launch site, we are worried about those downrange winds and wave heights in case of an abort should that happen," said Bob Cabana, the director at Kennedy Space Center.

RELATED: Meet the astronauts going on the NASA, SpaceX Crew-2 mission

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Crew Dragon Endeavour, marking the second crew rotation on a commercial spacecraft mission and the first with two international partner astronauts. 

The international team of the Crew-2 mission is bringing together astronauts from the US, Europe, and Japan: NASA's Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet will embark on a six-month trip aboard the ISS.

"We are really excited and ready to go," said Kimbrough during a press conference over the weekend. "It's just an amazing feeling, I've gotten to do that before and there's nothing like when you look out the window and see a spaceship getting prepared and realize that you're going to be riding on it in a few days."

"It's an honor to be part of this team, looking forward to a great flight and a great mission," Hoshide added.

RELATED: 'We are really excited and ready to go': SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts speak about upcoming mission

The four astronauts will overlap for a few days with SpaceX Crew-1.

Crew-2 Missions Manager Ben Stahl said that this mission will be one for the books, stating that "It is historic for many reasons. We are flying our first ESA astronaut Thomas which is very exciting, we are flying on a reused capsule on top of a reused first stage booster which is also very exciting, so there are a lot of firsts associated with this mission."

Once Crew-2 arrives at the ISS, they will conduct hundreds of experiments that could eventually help space agencies prepare for distance space missions and even help fight diseases back here on earth. 

Photo from NASA

"The International Space Station is a floating laboratory in space that is unlike any environment that certainly exists on the planet so we have a lot of opportunity at our disposal there to do the research and medical fields and all sorts of different fields and our goal as a program is to help facilitate that," Stahl explained to FOX 35.

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Johnson Space Center Flight Operations Directorate Deputy Manager Norm Knight called the business of human spaceflight "unforgiving" and praised the teams for their work.

"It's the vigilance from the teams that guarantee that continued safety and it was definitely present in these reviews this week. And you know you step back and you look, it's, it's, it's hard enough in a regular environment but you put COVID on top of that; it's been exceptionally impressive what these teams have been able to pull together," he said.

"The cadence is very good for the teams, between SpaceX and NASA people are working well with each other. We're looking forward to a successful mission. And again, it's just a very exciting time," he said.

FOX News contributed to this report.

Be sure to watch Good Day Orlando on Friday, April 23, and see the liftoff LIVE at 5:49 a.m. ET.