[UPDATE: SpaceX has called off Thursday’s launch attempt due to an approaching storm. It’s now targeting 1:17 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 28.]
SpaceX and NASA are gearing up for the Crew-9 launch that will carry an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the capsule and its crew are set to lift off on Saturday, September 28, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, following a flight readiness review carried out on Monday.
The original plan was for NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to fly to the ISS alongside NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, but Cardman and Wilson were recently removed from the flight as their seats are needed to bring home Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore at the end of the Crew-9 mission in February. Williams and Wilmore were supposed to travel home on Boeing Starliner’s spacecraft, but technical problems with the Starliner prompted NASA to bring the vehicle back to Earth empty, leaving Williams and Wilmore without a ride home.
Crew-9 is the ninth crew rotation mission to the space station with SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Hague and Gorbunov will spend about five months at the station, conducting experiments, research demonstrations, and spacewalks to perform maintenance on the orbital outpost.
How to watch
NASA is currently targeting 1:17 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 28, for the launch of the Crew-9 mission.
You can watch the build-up to the launch, the liftoff, and the early stages of the ISS-bound flight on SpaceX’s X account, which will carry a live feed of the proceedings.
We’ll update here if any changes are made to the launch schedule, but be sure to check SpaceX’s social media channels for the very latest information.
