THE WORLD WILL have to wait a little longer for the first launch of human beings into space in a craft not run by a national government. Crew Dragon (pictured) is designed, built and operated by SpaceX, a private firm founded by Elon Musk—as is the Falcon 9 rocket its sits on. This was intended to carry it into orbit for a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station after a lift-off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 27th. It would have been the first crewed launch from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight nine years ago, but it was scrubbed shortly before lift-off because of bad weather, and has been rescheduled for May 30th.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Crew Dragon is postponed”
