SpaceX pressed ahead with its second attempt to launch astronauts for NASA -- a historic first for a private company -- but more stormy weather threatened more delays.
Elon Musk's company came within 17 minutes Wednesday of launching a pair of NASA astronauts for the first time in nearly a decade from the U.S., before the threat of lightning forced a delay.
"We cannot forget this is a test flight. This -- is -- a -- test -- flight," he repeated. "We will go when everything is as safe as we can possibly make it." President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence were expected to return for the Saturday attempt. The number of employees, journalists and guests inside remained extremely limited because of the pandemic.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to get the ball rolling again -- kicking off a commercial revolution for getting people to low-Earth orbit, according to officials. In the meantime, NASA has spent billions of dollars to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules for U.S. astronauts, in order to keep the space station staffed.
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