SpaceX launches mission to rescue 2 astronauts stranded in space since June

A SpaceX rocket carrying 2 unit members lifted disconnected from Florida aboriginal Saturday afternoon arsenic portion of NASA’s ninth commercialized unit rotation ngo to the International Space Station.

It volition bring backmost 2 astronauts successful February who person been stranded successful the abstraction presumption since June.

The mission, known arsenic Crew-9, took disconnected astatine 1:17 p.m. aft attempts earlier this week were delayed due to the now-post tropical cyclone Helene.

The Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov who are going connected a five-month ngo to the ISS.

Notably, the spacecraft lifted disconnected with 2 bare seats. Those are reserved for 2 NASA astronauts who person been stranded successful abstraction since early June.

Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore arrived astatine the ISS connected June 6 aft lifting disconnected successful the Boeing Starliner from Cape Canaveral the erstwhile day.

They were expected to instrumentality to Earth a week later, but their program was derailed aft NASA and Boeing officials detected helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft absorption power thrusters arsenic the Starliner approached the abstraction station.

Spacecraft separation confirmed! Dragon is present flying free. #Crew9 is scheduled to get astatine the @Space_Station connected Sunday, Sept. 29 astatine 5:30pm ET (2130 UTC). Coverage begins connected NASA+ astatine 3:30pm ET (1930 UTC). pic.twitter.com/nDX5HYLhYw

— NASA (@NASA) September 28, 2024

Late past month, pursuing weeks of investigating and information analysis, NASA decided it would beryllium too risky for the 2 experienced astronauts to instrumentality aboard the Starliner.

That meant the Boeing-developed spacecraft returned location without its unit connected Sept. 7 — and Williams and Willmore would person to hold a fewer much months for a thrust backmost to Earth.

They are present coming backmost connected those 2 bare seats connected the Dragon capsule — but not until February.

“A unit alteration is not a tiny thing,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said astatine a post-launch quality league erstwhile noting the reshuffling was “hard” for Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, the 2 astronauts who had to springiness up their seats.

“But I deliberation it’s a reflection of the information that quality abstraction formation is analyzable and dynamic, and we request to beryllium agile and absorption connected the mission,” she said.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated “the full squad connected a palmy launch,” portion noting the ngo required “a batch of operational and readying flexibility.”

“Our NASA wizards and our commercialized and planetary partners person shown erstwhile again the occurrence that comes from moving unneurotic and adapting to changing circumstances without sacrificing the harmless and nonrecreational operations of the International Space Station,” Nelson said.

Hague, who is expected to dock astatine the ISS connected Sunday astatine astir 5:30 p.m. EST, was besides blessed with the palmy launch.

“It was a saccharine ride,” helium said connected NASA’s livestream aft taking disconnected to space.