BREAKING: Today's planned launch of the Falcon 9 has been scrubbed due to poor weather in the area of Cape Canaveral, FL. Space X and NASA will try again this weekend. The plans are in place for both Saturday and Sunday as possible launch windows.

Experts remind us that this is a very common procedure for space travel to be forced to scrub a launch because of weather conditions.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:

For the first time in more than 9 years, the United States is going into space. The launch of the Falcon 9 will take place at 4:33 pm (weather permitting) from Cape Canaveral, FL.

You can watch this historical moment right here:

NASA ended its space program back in 2011 due to safety and cost concerns. Since then American astronauts have been "catching rides" to the space station via Russian spacecraft.

Today's SpaceX mission will be the first launch from US soil since 2011. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk.

The Falcon 9 rocket will blast off two U.S. astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, in the Crew Dragon capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The crew has been in strict quarantine in the days leading up to today's launch (in light of the COVID-19 outbreak). If all goes to plan, they're expected to launch at 4:33 p.m. ET.

The astronauts have been loaded in the spacecraft and as of this moment, the launch is scheduled to be on (despite some earlier concerns about the weather). If bad weather occurs, they'll try again on May 30 or 31.

The mission calls for the astronauts to spend about 19 hours orbiting the earth before they will rendezvous and dock at the space station at 11:29 a.m. ET Thursday.

The astronauts will stay at the International Space Station for somewhere between one to four months, they say.

SpaceX signed a $2.6 billion contract with NASA in 2014 to complete six such missions, the first of which will lift off shortly after Demo-2 lands, provided all goes well with this test flight.

More From 94.5 PST