BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – NASA and SpaceX launched Crew-9 on Saturday from Florida’s Space Coast, marking SpaceX’s ninth operational human spaceflight mission to the space station and the first ever crewed liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The instantaneous launch window opened at 1:17 p.m. with weather conditions said to be some 60% favorable or more at launch time.
Crew-9 was delayed on Tuesday in light of Hurricane Helene. Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague and Alex Gorbunov arrived at Kennedy Space Center the Saturday prior.
During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew of two will conduct over 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth, SpaceX’s website states.
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Crew-9 has become increasingly overshadowed by the crewed flight test of Boeing’s Starliner, which reached the space station in June carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams yet returned to Earth empty after NASA weighed the risk. After nearly three months into what was expected to only be a mission lasting a week or two, NASA decided to send Starliner back to Earth without the crew members due to an uncertainty of how failing thrusters would perform.
Wilmore and Williams have been in high spirits however, and now that the Crew-9 roster has since been trimmed to two instead of four, the stranded NASA astronauts will have their tickets for a ride back home when the SpaceX capsule returns to Earth in February 2025.
A post-launch news conference is set for 3 p.m.
During a pre-launch news conference on Friday, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free expressed confidence in Starliner’s future flying crew to the space station.
“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” Free said.
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