SpaceX Crew-9 Mission to ’rescue’ Sunita Williams nears ISS, likely to dock in a few hours

SpaceX launched a reduced two-man crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, carrying supplies and two empty seats for Starliner astronauts awaiting a return home in February after an unplanned eight-and-a-half-month stay in orbit. The spacecraft is slated to dock at the International Space Station around 3:30 am on Monday.

"A Falcon rocket took off from Florida on Saturday, carrying two astronauts and two empty seats to bring Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth. Wilmore and Williams have been stranded in space since June due to issues with the Boeing Starliner," CBS News stated in a post on X.

The launch was delayed by two days due to high winds, rain, and clouds associated with Hurricane Helene. Finally, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited and lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1.17 pm EDT, following a north-easterly trajectory directly aligned with the ISS's orbital plane.

Inside the Crew Dragon "Freedom," commander Nick Hague, a seasoned NASA astronaut, monitored the automated ascent alongside Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, who was on his maiden flight.

Typically, Crew Dragons launch with four crew members; however, two Crew 9 astronauts--Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman--were removed from the mission in August to accommodate seats for Starliner commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams when Crew Dragon returns to Earth in February.

This mission marked the first piloted space flight from pad 40 and SpaceX's inaugural launch from the Space Force station, having previously conducted 14 Crew Dragon missions from the historic pad 39A at the nearby Kennedy Space Centre.

After propelling the Falcon 9 through the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage, which was on its second flight, successfully returned to land at the Space Force station 7 minutes and 40 seconds post-launch, CBS reported.

Four-and-a-half minutes later, the Crew Dragon was released to autonomously proceed toward the ISS, initiating a 28-hour rendezvous. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will dock at the station's forward port at 5.30 pm on Sunday.

Awaiting Hague and Gorbunov's arrival are Wilmore and Williams, who are currently serving as the ISS commander, along with Soyuz MS-26/72S commander Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who launched on September 11, the CBS News reported.

Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams will replace Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who were launched on March 3 and are scheduled to return to Earth around October 7, concluding a 217-day stay in space.

In addition to transporting Hague and Gorbunov to the station, the Crew Dragon was filled with clothing and supplies for Wilmore and Williams, who were launched on June 5 during the Starliner's first crewed test flight, reported CBS.

Initially, the mission was expected to last eight to ten days. However, various helium leaks in the Starliner's propulsion system, coupled with reduced thrust in five manoeuvring jets, led NASA to decide to bring the spacecraft down earlier this month without its crew.

As per the CBS News, consequently, NASA opted to launch the Crew 9 Dragon with only two of its original crew members, allowing the ship to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth at the end of its mission in February. By the time they land aboard the Crew 9 capsule around February 22, they will have spent over 262 days in space.

Some have described the Crew Dragon flight as a "rescue" mission. However, Wilmore and Williams have always had a path home, first via their spacecraft, then aboard Crew 8 Dragon, and after Sunday's docking, via Crew 9 Dragon. NASA deemed this option as the least disruptive to the ISS crew rotation schedule.

During a post-launch press conference, Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management for SpaceX, expressed her support, stating, "At SpaceX, we were all cheering on our NASA and our Boeing friends for a successful CFT (Cre Flight Test) mission."

She added, "Bringing new human spaceflight capabilities is exciting, but these early test flights come with lessons learned, always. We still learn something every single time we fly. We've had our share of hardware challenges."

Transitioning from a four-member crew to just two posed a unique challenge for Hague and Gorbunov, as well as Wilmore and Williams, who were not trained for flight aboard a Crew Dragon.

"We're going to launch as a two-person crew, and then we're going to land as a four-person crew," Hague explained. "And one of the unique challenges of that is, how do we integrate the other two crew members into the Dragon operations when they've had very minimal Dragon training before they launched?"

Hague noted that the ground teams have been instrumental in preparing both crews, stating, "The teams on the ground have helped not only get us ready, but they've already started helping Butch and Suni train to understand what they're going to need to do inside of the Dragon. That's going to be a top priority when we get there, (helping) them understand what they're going to need to do to operate as part of the Crew 9 crew."

A Space Force colonel, Hague is a former F-16 test pilot and combat veteran with 203 days logged in space from a previous mission. His extensive experience was likely a significant factor in NASA's decision to assign him to the commander's role for this revised mission, the CBS News reported.

Gorbunov retained his seat aboard the Crew 9 Dragon as part of a contract between NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. This arrangement ensures that Russian Soyuz spacecraft carry one NASA astronaut on each flight to the ISS while a cosmonaut launches on each four-seat Crew Dragon.

This strategy guarantees that at least one crew member from each country is present on the ISS, even in the event of an emergency requiring an unplanned return to Earth. While Gorbunov is not trained to pilot the Crew Dragon, he will occupy the pilot's seat during launch to assist Hague.

"Essentially, we're flying without a pilot, and so fundamentally, the commander is responsible for keeping the crew safe, keeping the vehicle safe, and making sure we get the mission done," Hague noted. "And so those responsibilities haven't changed."

"Alex is going to be working to support me during all the dynamic phases of flight and provide me with the extra set of eyes, the extra set of hands that I would need and that I would leverage if I had a pilot sitting next to me. So in that way, it's not very different," he added. (ANI