Launch delay.

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SpaceX's first four-astronaut launch for NASA is going to have to wait at least an extra day to get off the ground.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule were slated to launch the astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday (Nov. 14) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That mission, called Crew-1, will now launch no earlier than Sunday at 7:27 p.m. EST (0027 Nov. 16 GMT) due to weather delays from Tropical Storm Eta that affected SpaceX's drone ship rocket recovery operations. The launch itself had a promising 70% chance of good weather.

"Fundamentally, this was an issue of getting the drone ship there in time," Benji Reed, SpaceX's senior director for human spaceflight programs, told reporters in a Friday press conference. "The weather was such because of this tropical storm, that we couldn't get the drone ship to leave in time and get there."

SpaceX uses automated drone ships as floating landing pads in the Atlantic Ocean to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket for later reuse. But good weather is needed for those operations. Recovering the Crew-1 mission's first stage is vital since the booster will be used on SpaceX's next astronaut flight for NASA, which is due to launch March 30.

"This booster is very important for us," NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stitch said. " We're going to reuse the first stage that we're flying on Crew-1 for the Crew-2 mission coming up in the springtime."

Reed also said that SpaceX and NASA currently have no concerns related contact-tracing in response to a question about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's announcement today that he'd received two positive tests for the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, as well as two negative tests.

"I can assure everyone that we're looking good for the Crew-1 launch and for all the personnel that are involved," Reed said.

Update: Due to onshore winds and recovery operations, @NASA and @SpaceX are targeting launch of the Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the @Space_Station at 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 15. The first stage booster is planned to be reused to fly astronauts on Crew-2. #LaunchAmericaNovember 13, 2020

SpaceX's Crew-1 mission will launch NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi on what will be a six-month mission at the International Space Station.

The mission is the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA, and the first four-person flight for the company. (SpaceX's first crewed flight test for NASA in May carried only two astronauts.)

The mission was originally scheduled to launch on Oct. 23, then pushed back to Oct. 31. Last month, SpaceX and NASA postponed the flight to mid-November to allow time to replace two rocket engines on the mission's Falcon 9 booster.

If SpaceX had launched the mission Saturday, the Crew-1 astronauts would have reached the station early Sunday morning after an 8.5-hour trip due to the location of the station at that time. Because of the one-day delay, the Crew-1 mission will now take about three times longer.

"It's about 27 hours from launch to dock," Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters Tuesday (Nov. 10) in a press briefing. "And that's just due to the way the orbital mechanics line up."

That extra time means the Crew-1 astronauts will spend the night in their Crew Dragon, which they've named "Resilience."

"It gives them more opportunity to try out Dragon," Reed said, adding that SpaceX is also eager to see how the capsule performs with a full crew complement during that time. "I'm pretty sure there are a couple of broadcast events that they'll be able to do with this time period, and you know, checking things out seeing the Earth go by."

The weather forecast for a Sunday launch is only slightly less favorable than on Saturday, with a 60% chance of good weather, according to a U.S. Space Force forecast.

If SpaceX is unable to launch on Sunday, the Crew-1 astronauts will have to wait for three more days, until Wednesday (Nov. 18), to try again. That's because of a few things: First, two cosmonauts currently on the space station will perform a spacewalk on Monday, so the station's current three-person Expedition 64 crew will be busy. A launch on Tuesday would actually take longer to reach the station than Sunday's flight profile, Reed added.

"So the next opportunity would be Wednesday, Thursday Friday in the middle of next week," he said.

SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with multi-billion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts to and from the space station for NASA. The other company, Boeing, will launch astronauts on its own Starliner spacecraft using United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets.

SpaceX's first crewed launch for NASA lifted off on May 30. That mission, called Demo-2, lasted two months and ferried two astronauts to and from the station.

You can watch SpaceX's Crew-1 launch for NASA live here at Space.com on Sunday beginning at 3:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT).

Editor's note: This story was updated to include new comments from SpaceX and NASA on the launch delay for the Crew-1 mission.

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https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-set-first-spacex-operational-crew-dragon-launch

Go for launch 7:27 EST.

NASA is set for the first operational SpaceX Crew Dragon launch, marking an important milestone for the space program.

The launch, which was pushed back from Saturday on account of weather, is scheduled for 7:27 p.m. ET Sunday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The six-month mission is the first crew rotation flight on a U.S. commercial spacecraft.

The latest weather forecast is 50% favorable, NASA tweeted on Sunday morning.

“All systems are go for tonight’s launch at 7:27 p.m. EST of Crew Dragon’s first operational mission with four astronauts on board,” tweeted SpaceX.

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"Monitoring onshore winds, but we are within margins and are still a go for launch," tweeted NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at 1:46 pm ET Sunday.

NASA firefighters drive on the road outside the fence near a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company's Crew Dragon capsule attached, sits on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA firefighters drive on the road outside the fence near a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company's Crew Dragon capsule attached, sits on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
The Crew-1 mission will bring NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon vehicle. It follows a successful Demo-2 mission earlier this year.

Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence will attend the Crew-1 launch.

The launch was initially slated for Oct. 31 but was pushed back to Nov. 14 when the Falcon rocket had two engines replaced because of contamination from a red lacquer used in processing.

The astronauts have named their Dragon capsule Resilience given all the challenges of 2020: coronavirus and social isolation, protests against racial injustice, and a particularly difficult election and campaign season. They have been in quarantine for a week or two and were taking safety precautions — masks and social distancing — long before that.

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On the orbiting space lab, the Crew-1 team will join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, who is already on the space station, in conducting extensive scientific research. “Not only will the Crew-1 astronauts and fellow Expedition 64 NASA astronaut Kate Rubins conduct hundreds of microgravity studies during their mission, they also deliver new science hardware and experiments carried to space with them inside Crew Dragon,” explained NASA in a statement.

NASA astronauts, from left, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, right, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, stop to pose for a picture as walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to depart for Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA astronauts, from left, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, right, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, stop to pose for a picture as walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to depart for Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)
The astronauts will investigate food physiology, conduct a student-designed experiment on genes in space and grow radishes, as well as examine the interaction between microbes and rocks in microgravity.

Other experiments include using thumb drive-sized devices containing human cells to study the effects of space on human organs and a study on changes in cardiovascular cells and tissues in microgravity. Experiments will also be conducted on NASA’s next-generation spacesuit, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU).

The mission marks another important milestone for America’s space program following the Demo-2 flight earlier this year.

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On Aug. 2, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, ending their historic two-month trip to space.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, of Japan, from left, NASA Astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins walk after arriving at Kennedy Space Center, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, of Japan, from left, NASA Astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins walk after arriving at Kennedy Space Center, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
The mission marked the first time that astronauts have launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011. Amid a blaze of publicity, the Demo-2 mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 30.

After the end of the Space Shuttle program, the U.S. relied on Russian Soyuz rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to get astronauts into space. Russia charges the U.S. about $75 million to send an astronaut into space, and the Associated Press reports that the last Soyuz ticket cost America $90 million.

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Fox News’ Chris Ciaccia, Kristin Fisher, Lauren Blanchard, David Clark, Erin McEwan and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers