The Irish Coast Guard was on standby for last night’s planned SpaceX launch, which was scrubbed at the final hour due to poor weather conditions.

The Falcon 9 rocket had been due to lift off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida last night (Wednesday 27 May) with the first US launch of American astronauts in nine years to the International Space Station.

And with the flight path taking taking the SpaceX mission — the first with humans on a commercial spacecraft — around the Atlantic and just past Ireland, the coastguard here was ready to respond if the mission were aborted off Irish shores. The Irish Examiner has much more HERE.

At 21:30 the first launch of humans aboard a commercial spacecraft to the ISS will take place & the Irish Coast Guard is playing a very small part.

CG staff are on standby to lead the SAR operations for the @SpaceX space craft should it be forced to abort the mission. pic.twitter.com/fSTtmUEsZa

— Irish Coast Guard (@IrishCoastGuard) May 27, 2020

While the closing weather window put paid to last night’s launch with minutes to go, it’s possible NASA and SpaceX will try again this Saturday evening 30 May — and it’s expected the Irish Coast Guard will remain just as vigilant.