NASA-SpaceX to launch Crew 9 mission to bring back Sunita Williams

New Delhi: NASA-SpaceX is set to launch the Crew-9 — an astronaut and a cosmonaut — to the International Space Station (ISS), in a mission that aims to bring back stranded Indian-Origin Sunita Williams back to Earth in February next year.

According to NASA, the liftoff is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT (10:47 pm IST) on Saturday from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

“This is the first human spaceflight mission to launch from that pad,” the US space agency said.

The Crew-9 was initially expected to launch on Thursday but was postponed due to poor weather conditions due to hurricane Helene, currently impacting the Gulf Coast of Florida.

The flight will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the orbiting laboratory for about five-month science mission. They will return to Earth in February along with Williams and Butch Willmore.

Williams and Willmore travelled to the ISS on an eight-day sojourn on the faulty Boeing’s Starliner. While the Starliner was declared unfit for human travel by NASA, and it returned safely to Earth, the astronaut duo is stuck in space.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Flight Readiness Review confirmed that all systems are “go” for the launch, ensuring that the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are ready for this critical mission.

For the first time since May 2020 test flight, SpaceX is launching two astronauts to the ISS on a Dragon spacecraft.

In a bid to make room for Williams and Willmore in the orbiting lab, NASA had pulled out two other Crew-9 members — commander Zena Cardman and three-time shuttle flier Stephanie Wilson.

The Crew-9 mission will fly with two empties with extra cargo and supplies, including a new Dragon spacesuit for Wilmore (one for Williams is already aboard the ISS).

The targeted docking time is approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday (3.30 am Monday), NASA said.