How to Watch Saturday’s NASA SpaceX Rocket Launch Live

Tyler Hersko
·3 min read

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America is still returning to space, but the wait will be a bit longer than originally expected. NASA was prepared to launch the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Capsule on Wednesday but the takeoff was delayed due to unfavorable weather conditions. The launch has been rescheduled for Saturday and viewers will be able to watch the event live, courtesy of NASA.

NASA will begin airing coverage of the upcoming launch on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT on NASA Television and online at http://www.nasa.gov/live. The live stream is also embedded below.

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“I know there’s a lot of disappointment today. The weather got us,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement regarding the launch delay. “But it was a great day for NASA. It was a great day for SpaceX. Our teams worked together in a really impressive way, making good decisions all along.”

Though work on the Wednesday launch was progressing smoothly, weather officials briefed the SpaceX team that there wouldn’t be enough time to wait for the weather to improve. Rain, cumulus clouds, attached anvil clouds, lightning and field mill data, which measure the amount of electricity in the atmosphere, all violated Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon launch criteria at times throughout the day.

Saturday’s launch should still give NASA enthusiasts plenty of reason to celebrate, though the event will likely be less star-studded than Wednesday’s event. Wednesday’s attempted launch was promoted by Discovery and Science Channel, who hosted a multi-platform “Space Launch Live: America Returns to Space” television event that featured a star-studded guest list to celebrate the occasion. Katy Perry, Adam Savage, and former NASA engineer Mark Rober were among the variety of celebrity guests that appeared during the networks’ broadcasts and were joined by a handful of current and former astronauts, who offered expert insight on the program.

The networks also aired “NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future,” a two-hour documentary featuring an inside look at NASA and the SpaceX headquarters, leading up to the launch. The documentary offered a “rare glimpse inside Launch Control and first-hand accounts from SpaceX Founder and chief engineer Elon Musk, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, and Bridenstine” as they work towards their goal of eventually flying to the moon and to Mars.

The documentary aired Monday, May 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Science Channel and was rebroadcast the following day at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery.

The live broadcast and accompanying two-hour documentary were made in partnership with The Washington Post and journalist Christian Davenport, who interviewed the key players behind the event, including Musk.

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