NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 to Launch on Sept 26 For Sunita Williams Rescue Mission

NASA has confirmed that the SpaceX Crew-9 mission is scheduled for launch no earlier than September 26, 2024.

The mission, headed to the International Space Station (ISS), will lift off at 11:35 PM IST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Backup launch windows are available on September 27 and 28 if needed.

In an update posted on X, NASA stated, "NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Thursday, Sept. 26 for the launch of the #Crew9 mission to the @Space_Station, with back-up dates on Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28. "

"Joint teams continue to work through prelaunch operations and hardware processing ahead of the first human spaceflight launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while also monitoring weather ahead of liftoff," it added.

The Crew-9 mission will carry two astronauts—NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

Hague, a seasoned astronaut with 203 cumulative days in space and three spacewalks, will serve as mission commander. This will be his third trip to space and his second to the ISS. Gorbunov, meanwhile, will embark on his first spaceflight as a mission specialist.

Crew-9 is unusual in that only two astronauts are flying, instead of the usual four. This is to leave space for Sunita Williams and her colleague Barry Wilmore, who will return to Earth with the help of Hague and Gorbunov. Williams and Wilmore have been aboard the ISS since June 5 as part of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test using the Starliner spacecraft. However, due to technical issues with Starliner, NASA has decided to return the astronauts using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

Hague and Gorbunov will remain on the ISS for six months, with Williams and Wilmore expected to return to Earth in early 2025.