NASA cleared its next astronaut flight to the International Space Station for launch on Friday (Sept. 27), a weekend liftoff that will help return two Boeing Starliner astronauts home and break in a new launch pad for SpaceX.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch two Crew-9 astronauts, NASA veteran Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov, to the ISS from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday, Sept. 28. Liftoff is set for 1:17 p.m. EDT (1517 GMT).
"We're proceeding toward launch and go to proceed time of 1:17 p.m. tomorrow," Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters Friday evening in a press briefing. "We are vertical at the pad, and the next big activity will be loading the cargo here this afternoon and then getting ready for flight." You can watch the Crew-9 launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA and SpaceX, beginning at 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT). You can also watch the launch on NASA's YouTube, NASA+ streaming channel and SpaceX's X page.
SpaceX's Crew-9 mission is a break from the company's typical ISS crew rotation flights for NASA in a couple of ways.
First, there's the crew size.
A half-Dragon crew
For the first time since a May 2020 test flight, SpaceX is only launching two astronauts to the ISS on a Dragon spacecraft. That's because NASA pulled two other crewmembers -- its original commander Zena Cardman and three-time shuttle flier Stephanie Wilson -- from the flight to make room for two astronauts that have been stuck on the ISS since their Boeing Starliner capsule return to Earth without them on Sept. 7.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams launched to the station in June on the first-ever crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. But concerns over Starliner's thruster system prompted NASA to keep Wilmore and Williams on the ISS and return Starliner home uncrewed. Their original eight-day mission turned into a full eight-month spaceflight. This month, Williams even took command of the station's current Expedition 72 crew while she and Wilmore wait for a trip home on Crew-9's Dragon capsule in February 2025.
To accommodate the Starliner astronauts' return, Cardman and Wilson had to give up their seats, setting aside years of training for their Crew-9 flight, which Hague is now commanding. NASA is filing the two empty Crew-9 seats with extra cargo and supplies, including a new Dragon spacesuit for Wilmore (one for Williams is already aboard the ISS).
"I just want you to know we're going to find spots for them to fly," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations and a former astronaut, said of Cardman and Wilson. "And we really appreciate how hard it is to give up a mission and wait a little bit longer."
Also new for Crew-9's flight is SpaceX's choice of launch pad.
Related: Astronauts, capsule for SpaceX's Crew-9 arrive at launch site (photos)
SpaceX's new astronaut pad
Until now, SpaceX has launched every astronaut mission for NASA from the Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A, which hosted Apollo and space shuttle launches before SpaceX leased it from the U.S. agency. However, SpaceX also launches uncrewed missions from its Space Launch Complex-40 pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is located near the Kennedy Space Center.
The pad was formerly used by the U.S. Air Force for Titan rocket launches from 1965 to 2005, according to the Cape Canaveral Space Museum. In 1996, it was used to launch a Titan 3C rocket carrying the Manned Orbiting Laboratory military space station mockup and a Gemini capsule (with no crew aboard), according to NASA.
The SLC-40 pad, newly upgraded to host astronaut launches, now sports a crew access tower and arm, a chute-based pad escape system to whisk crews away in case of danger and should function much like SpaceX's Pad 39A site. It also means more flexibility for SpaceX.
"I think operating off of Pad 40 gives us a lot of unique capabilities that we can take advantage of," Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, told reporters.
Having a second crew-capable launch pad allows SpaceX breathing room to tackle complicated launches at both its Florida launch sites. The company is currently preparing Pad 39A to launch a triple-booster Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA's flagship Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon Europa on Oct. 10. Without a second crew-certified pad, SpaceX would not be able to do both missions, Gerstenmaier said.
Related: How to watch SpaceX's Crew-9 astronaut launch for NASA
"It also allows us to put two crew missions pretty close together, back-to-back, and see where we are if we need to do that," he added. "So I think it's it's neat to have a backup capability, or if something happens to a pad, or there's some damage to a pad, or we need to take a pad down for maintenance."
SpaceX and NASA previously targeted Sept. 26 to launch the Crew-9 mission, but postponed it to Sept. 28 due to bad weather from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida on what would have been the missions' original launch day. The rainy fallout from that storm on Florida's Space Coast (on the opposite side of the state) was tropical storm class winds and rain, NASA officials said.
SpaceX did have to clean and repaint part of the Dragon capsule after winds blew soot from a standard engine test back at the capsule earlier this week. That cleaning helped ensure the capsules radiators and solar arrays will work properly during the flight, NASA said.
Currently, Space Force weather officials forecast a 55% chance of good weather on Saturday for Crew-9's launch. Those conditions improve to 60% "go" on its backup day Sunday (Sept. 29). Another backup launch day on Monday (Sept. 30) is available, if needed, NASA officials said.
Editor's note: Tune in to Space.com early Saturday, Sept. 28, to watch SpaceX's Crew-9 astronaut launch for NASA. The launch webcast will begin at 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT). A post-launch press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
