Sunita Williams, other SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts move Dragon to new parking spot in space: Here’s why

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with four Expedition 72 crewmates relocated to a different port on the International Space Station to free up a docking port for the next cargo resupply spacecraft.

Those on board the Space X Dragon craft were former Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams of NASA, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, both originally assigned to Crew-9.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, with four onboard, undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 6:35am ET (5:05 pm IST) on Sunday and autonomously redocked to the module’s space-facing port at 7:18 am (5:6 pm IST).

VIDEO: Watch as Dragon approaches the ISS

The Crew Dragon spacecraft was relocated to another port on the ISS to make room for a cargo variant of the spacecraft, also called Dragon, to dock at the vacant Harmony port after a scheduled Monday, November 4, launch. It is known as NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission. WATCH this mission launch here

This was the fifth port relocation of a Dragon spacecraft with crew aboard following previous moves during the Crew-1, Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8 missions, NASA said.

What's launching on SpaceX's 31st Cargo Resupply Mission to the Space Station? The scientific investigations launching to the International Space Station on the 31st SpaceX commercial resupply services mission include studies of solar wind, a radiation-tolerant moss, spacecraft materials, and cold welding in space.

All about SpaceX Crew 9 mission

SpaceX Crew-9 is the tenth flight of the Dragon spacecraft with people as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov entered the International Space Station on September 29.

Meanwhile, Sunita Williams, space station commander, and Butch Wilmore, flight engineer, remain on the space station as Expedition 72 crew members. The former Starliner astronauts will return to Earth in February 2025 with Hague and Gorbunov as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

The Crew-9 Dragon is now the normal and emergency return spacecraft for the four-person crew. Earlier, it was Crew-8 Dragon, which returned to Earth on October 25, bringing an end to the 235-day Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were launched into space on Boeing's Starliner craft on June 5, are serving extra time on the International Space Station after their spacecraft suffered anomalies during the travel to the ISS.

The Starliner duo were reassigned to Crew-9 mission after NASA determined it was too great of a "risk" to bring them home safely aboard the Boeing spacecraft to conclude their test ISS mission, Space.com reported.

NASA had altered its Crew-9 mission to accommodate Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in the mission. It was originally planned to launch two other agency astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, aboard Crew-9. They were removed from the mission to leave two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth with the rest of Crew-9, in February 2025.