SpaceX Launch: Weather May Delay Liftoff As Forecasters Say 60 Percent Chance of Scattered Storms at Kennedy Space Center

Today's SpaceX launch carrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station could be delayed by bad weather, although the company is currently still targeting a time of 4:33 p.m. for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Southeastern Florida has been hit by torrential rain in the past few days due to a tropical disturbance that has been moving northwards into the Carolinas and Virginia.

But while this disturbance has largely passed the Space Coast, forecasters are saying that thunderstorms could be possible near the Space Center come Wednesday afternoon.

Forecasters said that there was around a 60 percent chance or greater of scattered thunderstorms at the launch area, with possible winds of around 10 miles per hour and potentially stronger gusts, The Weather Channel reported.

"The Space Center does not like wind, lighting, rain anywhere near them. Matter of fact, if there is rain within about 23 miles, [it's a] no-go," ABC7 weather man Sam Champion said. "So to have a line of storms on the model at about 4:30 p.m. and continuing up until about [6:00 p.m.] is certainly question for concern.

"It doesn't mean that's how the storms are going to develop because it's a model looking forward, but it means that the potential is there for those storms, and they're going to have to keep a close eye and watch it very carefully."

Conditions at the launch site already appear to have already taken a turn for the worse. WIRED journalist Daniel Oberhaus, who is at the Space Center, tweeted at 7:45 a.m. this morning: "Weather isnt looking great rn--just started pouring at the Kennedy press site and thunder rolling across the bay."

As well as the weather near the launch site, SpaceX and NASA will also be keeping a close watch on conditions in the Atlantic downrange of the Falcon 9 rocket's northeasterly trajectory.

These need to be relatively calm in case the astronauts are forced to activate the Crew Dragon spacecraft's emergency escape system after launch. As of yesterday, the conditions for this region seemed to be generally favorable.

"I would say it's looking OK," Daniel Forrestel, launch integration manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told CBS News on Tuesday. "I think our biggest risk right now is the weather on the pad. But it's never completely risk free downrange."

At present, SpaceX is still targeting a launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT. "Teams are closely monitoring launch and downrange weather," the company tweeted.

The final decision on whether to launch or not will be made about 45 minutes before. If conditions are not looking favorable at this point, the launch will be postponed until Saturday at 3:21 p.m. There is also a second backup launch window on Sunday at 3:00 p.m., although there is a chance that both of these times could also affected by stormy weather, according to The Weather Channel.

The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission marks the first crewed launch from American soil in nearly a decade since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly to the International Space Station and back aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft after being launched into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket.

"Demo-2 is the final major test for SpaceX's human spaceflight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station," SpaceX said in a statement.

"SpaceX is returning human spaceflight to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built, and NASA's Commercial Crew Program is a turning point for America's future in space exploration that lays the groundwork for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond."

This article was updated to include a tweet from Daniel Oberhaus.