SpaceX is launching a mission that will bring Starliner astronauts home

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The SpaceX flight that was scheduled to reunite Boeing Starliner astronauts with the spacecraft that would bring them home has launched. NASA’s Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore have now been on the International Space Station more than 100 days longer than expected.

The SpaceX mission, called Crew-9, lifted off at 1:17 p.m. ET on Saturday from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral in Florida.

NASA had earlier postponed the launch attempt from Thursday, returning the spacecraft to its hangar as Hurricane Helen threatened Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. Mission teams are resetting everything on the launch pad on Friday after the danger has passed.

Unlike other routine flights that transport astronauts to and from the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — of which SpaceX has already launched eight — the outer leg of this mission carries only two crew members instead of four: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and astronaut Roscosmos Alexander Gorbunov.

Two more seats are empty, designated for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the spacecraft’s return flight in 2025. This configuration is part of an ad hoc plan NASA chose to implement in late August after the space agency deemed the Starliner capsule too risky. Back with the crew.

Williams and Willmore took the Starliner vehicle to the International Space Station in early June for what was expected to be a roughly week-long test flight.

At liftoff, Hague and Gorbunov were strapped inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, nicknamed Freedom, sitting atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch vehicle came to life, powered by nine massive engines located at its base to propel the 1.2 million-pound (544,300) rocket system. kilograms) in the air.

After about two and a half minutes, the Falcon 9’s first stage stopped firing and separated from the rocket’s second stage. The second stage then ignited its own engine and continued to propel the Crew Dragon capsule to more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 kilometers per hour) — or 22 times the speed of sound.

As the crew rocketed at faster speeds, the rocket’s first stage guided itself back to land on a ground pad in Florida so SpaceX could refurbish and reuse the vehicle.

Once the Crew Dragon capsule reached orbital speed, the spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage and began maneuvering through orbit on its own, using its onboard thrusters to gradually adjust its position so it could dock with the International Space Station, expected at about 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

“Thank you guys, you know, we’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people who have been involved with Falcon 9 along the way,” Hague said on NASA’s live broadcast after the launch. “It was a sweet trip.”

On September 6, Williams and Willmore watched as the Boeing-built capsule returned from the station without them.

Engineers worked for months to understand the problems with helium leaks and propulsion interruptions that plagued the Starliner’s flight to the space station, and NASA ultimately declared that too many uncertainties and risks existed for the vehicle to be trusted to carry the crew on the return flight. It’s not clear when the Boeing Starliner might fly again.

NASA remains in the same position as it was four years ago, with SpaceX being the sole provider of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which is designed to hand off crew rotation on the International Space Station to the private sector. (Contracts were awarded to both Boeing and SpaceX in 2014, and SpaceX began routine flights in 2020, while Boeing struggled to push Starliner development to the finish line.)

To bring Williams and Wilmore home, NASA turned to SpaceX — choosing to remove two previously assigned members of the Crew-9 team to make room for Starliner test pilots.

Space agency Announce At the end of August, NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman will be the two members of the mission’s ejection. Cardman was prepared to make her first trip into space and was expected to be the Crew-9 mission commander.

Gorbunov, the Russian astronaut who earned his seat through a ride-sharing agreement signed between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, remained on the crew. Cardman handed over the duties of commander – the highest position in space flight – to The Haguewho was previously assigned as a pilot for Crew-9.

“Handing over command to The Hague is both heartbreaking and an honor. “Nick and Alex are a really excellent team and they will be ready to step up,” Cardman said. mail On social media platform X, formerly Twitter, after the announcement.

“I only wish Wilson, Nick, Alex and I could fly together, but we choose without hesitation to be part of something much bigger than ourselves. Astra ad per Aspira. “Go crew 9.”

Speaking on NASA’s live broadcast on Saturday, Cardman acknowledged that it was difficult to watch the launch without thinking, “This is my rocket, this is my crew.”

Meanwhile, Williams and Willmore engaged in daily life aboard the space station. The duo moved from a lighter test mission schedule to taking on full-time crew member roles, with Williams assuming the role of commander in the orbiting laboratory.

Gorbunov and Hague will join them after docking with the space station.

When asked if he was having difficulty adjusting to the prospect of waiting months longer to return home, Wilmore said during a Sept. 13 news conference from the space station: “I wouldn’t worry about it. I mean, there’s no point to it at all. So it was my switch — maybe It wasn’t instant – but it was very close.

Williams said she misses her family and is disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter, but added: “This is my happy place.” I love being here in space. It’s just fun. You know, every day that you do something, like quote or unquote, you can do it upside down. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little different perspective.