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Crew-9: SpaceX Launches Astronauts To ISS, With 2 Empty Seats In Dragon Reserved For Return Of Stranded Boeing Starliner Crew
Crew-9: SpaceX Launches Astronauts To ISS, With 2 Empty Seats In Dragon Reserved For Return Of Stranded Boeing Starliner Crew
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[Update] SpaceX Crew-9 Astronauts Aboard Dragon Freedom Arrive At The ISS
[Update] SpaceX Crew-9 Astronauts Aboard Dragon Freedom Arrive At The ISS
NASA astronaut and U.S. Space Force colonel Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov floated aboard the International Space Station(ISS) following the opening of the hatches between their Crew Dragon Freedom and the ISS. Freedom docked to the orbital lab's Harmony module at 2130 UTC, on Sunday Sept. 29, as both spacecraft soar about 418 kilometers over the Coral Sea.
The Crew Dragon duo were welcomed aboard at about 2315 UTC, by the Epedition 72 crew and the stranded Boeing Starliner crewmates Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who will be hitching a ride home in Freedom in February with Hague and Gorbunov.
Crew-9 launched Saturday afternoon (Sept. 28), the first human crew launch from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending Hague and Gorbunov into orbit.
Crew-9 Dragon makes it 2 SpaceX spacecraft currently docked to the space station. NASA's Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin came up with SpaceX's Crew-8 mission in March. They will be head back to Earth in a few weeks.
With Hague and Gorbunov aboard, there are now 11 total in the space station including NASA's Donald Pettit, and cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner.
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SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom atop Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, at 1717 UTC on Saturday, Sept. 28. Aboard are Crew-9 mission's NASA astronaut colonel and U.S. Space Force colonel Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov; with 2 empty seats reserved for the return next year of Boeing Starliner crewmates Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who are stuck in the International Space Station(ISS).
The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, as expected, returned to Earth, landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, about 8 minutes after liftoff. The Crew Dragon capsule meanwhile, continued its journey to the space station with which it's scheduled to dock on Sunday (Sept. 29) at 2230 UTC; followed by hatch opening about an hour and 45 minutes later.
"That was a sweet ride," Hague, Crew-9's commander, radioed SpaceX's launch control after reaching orbit with crewmate Gorbunov.
Dragon Freedom has flown three other missions to the ISS: NASA's Crew-4 flight and two commercial trips for Axiom Space, Ax-2 and Ax-3.
Saturday's was the first-ever astronaut launch from SLC-40 -- SpaceX's first Florida launch pad which has seen many uncrewed launches over the years.
The Elon Musk company and NASA spent two years upgrading the SLC-40 with a new crew launch tower, access arm and emergency escape slide to prepare it for astronaut flights.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were taken off Crew-9 mission to make room for Williams and Wilmore.
"I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, that's my rocket and that's my crew, but I also know that I'm not the only person who can think that," Cardman, Crew-9's original commander, said after watching the launch, her voice breaking at times. "There are many people who made this mission happen, and there are people on orbit who will be taking this capsule home, and it makes me very proud to know that I am one of many people who can say that's my crew."
NASA officials said they will work to reassign Cardman and Wilson to a new mission in the future.
"A crew change is not a small thing," NASA's Deputy Adminstrator Pam Melroy, a former space shuttle commander, said in a post-launch briefing. "It's very hard for Nick and Alex. It's also hard for Zena and Stephanie. But I think it's a reflection of the fact that human spaceflight is complicated and dynamic, and we need to be agile and focus on the mission."
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