An international crew of four astronauts had their planned launch to the International Space Station from Florida on Thursday postponed over bad weather, delaying a mission that had been watched by a rare gathering of senior Russian space officials in town for a meeting with NASA's acting chief.

The attempted mission includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.