Photos: Falcon takes flight

Launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station has been delayed 24 hours to Friday because of bad weather in the Atlantic Ocean where the crew could be forced to ditch in an emergency, NASA announced Wednesday.

The launch came as SpaceX is also preparing to launch a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station over the weekend. Liftoff of the Starlink 10-6 mission happened at 1:01 a.m. EDT (0501 UTC).

NASA cited the complexity of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane and an uncertainty of when the proposed crew transport craft would be ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station as the primary reasons the agency picked Boeing and SpaceX for lucrative contracts to develop commercial space taxis.