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A SpaceX mission aimed at reuniting the Boeing Starliner astronauts with the spacecraft that will bring them home is set to fly on Saturday. NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have already spent 100 days on the International Space Station longer than expected.
The mission, called Crew-9, is on track to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:17 p.m. Saturday. NASA will broadcast the event live Website.
The space agency delayed Thursday’s initial launch attempt as Hurricane Helen threatened Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. After passing the hazard the mission teams reset everything on the launch pad.
“We got off a little late this morning,” Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial team program manager, said at a news conference Friday. “We’re vertical on the pad.”
A backup release window is 12:54 pm ET on Sunday if weather or technical issues force Saturday’s attempt to be scrapped.
Unlike the regular missions that carry astronauts to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew program — of which SpaceX has already launched eight — the mission’s outbound leg will carry only two crew members instead of four: NASA astronaut Nick Hack and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Korbunov.
The other two seats reserved for Williams and Wilmore on the shuttle’s return flight in 2025 will fly empty.
The structure is part of a temporary plan NASA chose to implement in late August after the space agency deemed the Starliner capsule too dangerous to return with Williams and Wilmore. The two traveled to the International Space Station on Starliner in early June
At liftoff time, Hack and Korbunov will be strapped inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, nicknamed Freedom, which will sit atop a Falcon 9 rocket. A launch vehicle powered by nine massive engines sitting at its base will power the 1.2-million-pound (544,300-kilogram) rocket system into the air.
After about 2 ½ minutes, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage will stop firing and pull away from the rocket’s second stage. The second stage will ignite its own engine, propelling the Crew Dragon capsule to 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 kilometers per hour) — or 22 times the speed of sound.
As the crew burns at high speed, the rocket’s first stage will reorient itself and land on the ground in Florida so that SpaceX can refurbish the vehicle and reuse it.
Once the Crew Dragon capsule reaches orbital velocity, the spacecraft can detach from Falcon 9’s second stage and dock with the International Space Station to gradually adjust its position using orbital thrusters. 5:30 pm ET Sunday.
Williams and Wilmore saw their Boeing-built capsule return from the station without them on September 6.
Engineers worked for months to understand issues like helium leaks and propulsion malfunctions that plagued Starliner’s journey to the space station, and NASA eventually announced several uncertainties and risks. It’s unclear when Boeing’s Starliner will fly again.
NASA remains in the same position it has been for four years, with SpaceX being the sole provider for the space agency’s commercial crew program, which is designed to outsource the task of crew orbiting the International Space Station. (Boeing and SpaceX were both awarded contracts in 2014, and SpaceX began regular flights in 2020, while Boeing struggled to push Starliner development to the finish line.)
To bring Williams and Wilmore home, NASA turned to SpaceX — choosing to remove two previously assigned members from its Crew-9 crew to make room for the Starliner test pilots.
Space Agency declared NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Gina Cartman will be the members launched from the mission at the end of August. Cartman was set to make his first trip into space and was expected to be the commander of the Crew-9 mission.
Russian cosmonaut Korpunov, who earned his spot through a ride-sharing agreement signed between NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, was on board. And Cartman was handed commander duties — the top position of a spaceship — HackFormerly named Crew-9 pilot.
“Handing over the leadership to Hack is both heartbreaking and an honor. Nick and Alex are truly a great team and will be ready to move forward,” said Cartman. Position On social platform X, formerly Twitter, after the announcement.
“Me (Wilson), Nick, Alex and I love to fly together, but we also want to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves without hesitation. Ad Astra to Aspera. Go Crew 9.”
Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore have settled into everyday life on the space station. Both assumed roles as full-time crew members from light experimental work schedules, with Williams assuming the role of commander of the orbiting laboratory.
Korbunov and Hague will join them after docking with the space station on Sunday.
Asked if he would have trouble adjusting to the prospect of waiting months to get home, Wilmore said at a Sept. 13 news conference from the space station, “I’m not going to worry about it. That is, there is no benefit in it. So my transition – maybe it wasn’t immediate – but it was pretty close.
Williams said he misses his family and is disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter, but he added, “This is my happy place. I love being here in space. It’s fun. You know, every day you’re doing something like work, quote, quote.” , you can do it upside down, you can do it sideways, so it adds a little bit of a different perspective.
