National forecast for Wednesday, May 27
Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean has your FoxCast.
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The SpaceX launch of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011 on Wednesday may face the threat of thunderstorms along Florida's Space Coast by the afternoon.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT from pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center. It will mark the first time a private company, rather than a government, sends astronauts into orbit.
But the threat of scattered thunderstorms in the area by Wednesday afternoon may cause the launch to end up being postponed.
"I'm a little concerned as we get into the afternoon hours," Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean said Wednesday on "Fox & Friends."
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The odds of acceptable launch weather improved Tuesday to 60 percent, which didn't factor in conditions along the SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule's route to orbit.
SpaceX needs relatively calm seas and winds along the U.S. and Canadian seaboard and across the North Atlantic to Ireland, in case astronauts Hurley and Behnken need to make an emergency splashdown.
The second named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Bertha, quickly formed and made landfall along the coast of South Carolina Wednesday morning. The storm will move inland as the day goes on.
The SpaceX launch on Wednesday may be impacted by scattered showers and thunderstorms along Florida's Space Coast. (Fox News)
According to Dean, the future forecast shows the threat for showers and thunderstorms along Florida's Space Coast around the time of the planned launch. The conditions are what one typically sees in Florida during summer afternoons along the Space Coast.
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Dean believed the launch would be a "game-time decision."
The national forecast for May 27. (Fox News)
"We might have a small window of opportunity where showers and thunderstorms are, you know, not in the immediate area," Dean said on "Fox & Friends. "But we have this area of low pressure that is tropical in nature and it's going to bring the potential for heavy rainfall, as well as showers, thunderstorms."
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If SpaceX does not launch during Wednesday's split-second window, the next try would be Saturday.
At a news briefing Tuesday, Bridenstine described the launch as “a unique opportunity” to bring all of America together in one moment.
Both NASA and SpaceX have been diligent about making sure everyone in the launch loop knows they're free to halt the countdown if there's a concern, Bridenstine told reporters.
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Some 45 seconds from liftoff, the SpaceX launch director will give the final go after everyone has been polled Wednesday. However, Bridenstine noted that NASA has the "right to intervene."
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected at Kennedy for the planned liftoff, but “our highest priority” will remain the astronauts' safety, according to Bridenstine.
Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this report.
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