Good news for Sunita Williams, Dragon capsule with two seats left; Crew-9 mission launched

 

FLORIDA: SpaceX's Crew-9 mission has been launched with objectives including the return of stranded Boeing Starliner passengers Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a special launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with two astronauts on board. Both travel in a Dragon capsule called Freedom.

Crew-9's two-night mission to the International Space Station was delayed much later than originally planned due to Hurricane Helen. Crew-9 is commanded by NASA's Nick Hughes. Gorbunov, a Russian traveler, was the second in the mission team. Both will arrive at ISS today, Sunday. This is the first space crew launch from the SLC-40 launch pad in Florida. In the past years, there have been unmanned space launches from this launch pad. It took two years for NASA and SpaceX to prepare this launch pad for astronaut flights.

There's a reason the Crew-9 mission's Dragon capsule (Freedom) took off carrying only two people, unlike normal. That's because two more people will be brought back from the International Space Station when the spacecraft returns to Earth in February 2025. In June 2024, NASA's Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who reached the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, were unable to return to Earth due to a helium leak in the spacecraft. The duo, who left for a space mission of just eight days, have been aboard the International Space Station for more than three months. To bring them back, SpaceX and NASA have left two seats in the Dragon capsule of the Crew-9 mission.