LAUNCH OF CREW-9 TO ISS, Sept 24, 2024, CCSFS

NASA plans to launch the next regular crew rotation mission, Crew-9, to the International Space Station on September 24, 2024. The time was not provided as of August 30.

The Crew-9 mission has encountered a number of changes because of the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test mission.

NASA originally selected a typical crew of four for Crew-9 — NASA astronauts Zena Cardman (commander), Nick Hague (pilot), Stephanie Wilson (mission specialist) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (mission specialist).

Problems with Starliner’s propulsion system led NASA to delay the Crew-9 launch from its originally scheduled date of August 18 while they determined if Starliner would be safe enough to return the two astronauts it delivered to the ISS, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to Earth.  NASA set a new date for Crew-9 of September 24.

On August 24, NASA decided that Starliner would return empty, leaving Butch and Suni on the ISS. They now will become part of Crew-9 and return with them in February 2025.

That means two of the four seats on Crew-9 had to be reallocated to them and two of the original Crew-9 members will have to have wait for another opportunity.

On August 30, NASA announced that Hague and Gorbunov will be the ones to fly. Cardman and Wilson are off the crew.

This will be the first launch of a crew from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), adjacent to Kennedy Space Center, ordinarily used for satellite launches. Crew Dragon usually launches from KSC’s Launch Complex 39A, but there are so many launches now SpaceX decided a second crew-capable pad was needed and retrofitted LC-40 to accommodate crews.  In this case, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy will be on LC39A preparing to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and is not available for Crew-9.