A SpaceX mission took off this Saturday with two passengers on board, instead of the four initially planned, in order to leave two seats free for American astronauts on the International Space Station.
The two American astronauts have been on the International Space Station for several months due to failures in a Boeing spacecraft, according to the AFP agency.
The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA), at 1:17 pm local time (17:17 GMT). The launch was carried out from a new launch platform, used for the first time for a manned mission.
“Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on a successful launch. This is an exciting time for exploration and innovation,” said US space agency director Bill Nelson.
Aboard the spacecraft are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
Their return is scheduled for February and the two astronauts will be accompanied by space veterans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who took off in early June aboard a new spacecraft developed by Boeing, the Starliner, on its first crewed test flight. to the Space Station (ISS).
The spacecraft was supposed to return to Earth eight days later, but problems detected in its propulsion system led NASA to question its reliability.
After weeks of testing, the space agency ended up sending the empty Boeing capsule back to Earth and decided to return the two crew members who sank with the SpaceX mission.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company is responsible for this regular ISS crew rotation mission, which, like all others, is expected to last around six months.
However, the Crew-9 launch was postponed from mid-August to late September to give NASA teams more time to make a decision about Boeing’s spacecraft. This regular ISS crew rotation mission, which, like all others, is expected to last around six months.
The launch had to be postponed again for a few days due to the passage of Hurricane Helene, which hit Florida this week.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS at around 21:30 GMT on Sunday.
After a transfer period with the four members of the previous mission, Crew-8, they will return to Earth aboard another SpaceX spacecraft.
In total, Nick Hague and Alexandre Gorbounov will spend around five months on the ISS. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will stay for about eight months.
At a press conference in early September, both assured that they were adapting well to their extended stay.
“The transition hasn’t been too difficult,” Suni Williams said. “We both come from the Navy, we’ve been deployed before. We’re not surprised when missions change.”
Around 200 scientific experiments are planned during crew 9’s stay in the flying laboratory.
Source: www.cmjornal.pt
