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 could lift off as early as Thursday, September 26, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, following a flight readiness review carried out on Monday, NASA officials have noted that the launch could be delayed by a gathering storm.
“NASA, SpaceX, and the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron are closely monitoring potential Tropical Cyclone Nine and its approach toward the Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s west coast ahead of launch,” the space agency said.
Despite this, the Falcon 9 rocket is is still scheduled to roll out to Kennedy’s Space Launch Complex-40 on Tuesday for a static fire and final dress rehearsal in preparation for launch.
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 2:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 26, 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 NASA’s YouTube channel, which we’ve embedded at the top of this page.
We’ll update here if NASA makes any changes to the launch schedule, but be sure to check its social media channels for the very latest information.