(NewsNation) — The launch of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission has been delayed until at least Sept. 26 to give teams a chance to address prelaunch operations and hardware processing as it will take off from a site not previously used for crewed missions.
The Crew-9 mission has already been delayed once, with NASA adjusting the timing to allow them more time to troubleshoot issues with Boeing’s Starliner, figure out how they were going to get the Starliner crew home and undock the vessel from the International Space Station so Crew-9 would be able to dock on arrival.
Crew-9 was originally set to launch with four astronauts on board, but following problems with Starliner’s thrusters and service module, the crew was reduced to two in order to allow the Starliner crew to come home on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
The change also required adjustments to the capsule to ensure that it would have the correct weight and balance for both legs of the journey despite the different crews as well as efforts to ensure the Starliner crew had the correct spacesuits needed to safely fly about a SpaceX capsule.
The mission will be headed by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, and they will stay at the ISS until February 2025, at which point astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will join them for the return flight.
On board the ISS, the Crew-9 team, including Wilmore and Williams, will conduct research meant to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. That includes experiments on how cells and platelets react to long-duration spaceflight and testing a B vitamin that could help reduce health problems associated with space flight.
In February, the crew will return to Earth, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
