Crew-8 launch to ISS delayed again by bad weather

Florida: The planned launch of a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday has been postponed by a day due to poor weather, US space agency NASA said.

Originally scheduled for February 22, the launch has now been postponed for a second time.

SpaceX said on social media that "elevated winds" forced Saturday's delay.

NASA said it was now targeting Sunday at 10:53 p.m. (0353 Monday GMT/UTC) for liftoff.

Crew-8 — which includes three American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut — was set to launch towards the ISS from Florida's Cape Canaveral space center.

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX began operating astronaut launch services for NASA since 2020 under NASA's Commercial Crew Programme.

NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebyonkin are to spend around six months on the space outpost carrying out research.

This will be the first space flight for Epps, Dominick and Grebyonkin and the third stint on the ISS for Barratt.

Space has remained a rare area of cooperation between the United States and Russia amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.