SpaceX Launched Downsized Crew-9 Towards the ISS

On Sept. 28, SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission successfully launched towards the International Space Station (ISS). At 17:17 UTC, the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft lifted off from SLC-40 on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, thus marking the first-ever crewed launch from this pad. This was the second flight for the B1085 booster, while the Freedom capsule previously carried Crew-4, Axiom-2, and Axiom-3 missions.

Liftoff of Crew-9! pic.twitter.com/laQRTLp4vC

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2024

Two and a half minutes into the flight, the second stage separated from the booster which landed at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral. Nearly ten minutes later the Dragon separated and the spacecraft’s nosecone opened. On board are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and the Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

On Sept. 29 the Dragon is scheduled to arrive at the station and dock with the Harmony module. The two astronauts will become members of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the ISS and will conduct over 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. At the end of the mission, they will come back accompanied by Starliner’s crew.

With today’s mission, SpaceX has carried a total of 56 people into space, 36 of whom launched as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), thus further extending its legacy of providing safe and constant access to Earth’s orbit.

A scaled-down crew to replace Starliner

Initially planned for August 18, Crew-9 has faced a series of significant crew changes and launch date delays in recent months. Indeed, in addition to ensuring SpaceX’s regular access to the space station, Crew-9 will now also have the task of bringing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home in 2025. The Starliner Calypso capsule returned to Earth empty on September 7, leaving the two NASA astronauts behind.

Finally lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on June 5 after years of postponement, Boeing’s spacecraft faced some issues with the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters, slowing down the rendezvous maneuvers with the ISS. Subsequently, two months of ground tests and safety discussions with Boeing were not enough to convince NASA engineers about the safety of the capsule’s undocking and re-entry operations.

As a result of these problems, on August 24, the space agency announced that the CST-100 Starliner would have returned uncrewed and two seats were made available by SpaceX to bring Suni and Butch home, but many months later than originally planned. The end of Crew-9 mission is in fact scheduled between February and March 2025.

It’s interestingly to note that since Calypso’s touchdown on Sept.7, Boeing hasn’t shared public updates on the Starliner program.

The crew

Nick Hague

Originally selected as Pilot, the NASA astronaut and USSF colonel is the Commander of the mission. This is the second flight to the ISS for Hague, who launched aboard Soyuz MS-12 in 2018, serving as flight engineer for Expedition 59 and 60.

Previously, he flew aboard MS-10, which suffered an in-flight abort and ballistic reentry due to a failure of the Soyuz rocket. Nick Hague is also the first active US Space Force Guardian to go to space.

Aleksandr Gorbunov

Mission Specialist Gorbunov is flying to space for the first time. The Roscosmos cosmonaut was born in Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, Russia. He studied engineering with qualifications in spacecraft and upper stages from the Moscow Aviation Institute.

Gorbunov worked as an engineer for Rocket Space Corp. Energia until 2018 when he was selected by Roscosmos.

Zena Cardman was initially assigned as commander of the Crew-9 mission with Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson. At the time of the decision regarding the two available seats, NASA chose to launch Hague for his experience and Gorbunov for the necessity of being always able to operate Russian critical systems on the station. Cardman and Wilson will be reassigned by NASA on future missions.

“While we’ve changed crew before for a variety of reasons, downsizing crew for this flight was another tough decision to adjust to given that the crew has trained as a crew of four,” said Joe Acaba, NASA chief astronaut.

_{*Cover image credits: NASA/Keegan Barber}