SpaceX is preparing to launch a rescue mission for stranded Starliner astronauts

(CNN) – The SpaceX mission launching Saturday aims to reunite Boeing Starliner astronauts with the spacecraft that will bring them home. NASA’s Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore have now been on the International Space Station for more than 100 days longer than expected.

The mission, called Crew-9, is on track to lift off Saturday at 1:17 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. NASA will broadcast the event live through its website web page.

The space agency had previously postponed Thursday’s launch attempt, returning the spacecraft to its hangar while Hurricane Helen threatened Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. Once the danger had passed, the mission teams reset everything on the launch pad.

“We left a little late this morning,” Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a news conference on Friday. “We are perpendicular to the platform.”

A backup launch window has also been set for 12:54 PM ET on Sunday in case weather or technical issues cause Saturday’s attempt to be cancelled.

Unlike other routine trips that astronauts make back and forth to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — eight of which SpaceX has already launched — the outer leg of this mission will carry only two crew members instead of four: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.

Two more empty seats, designated for Williams and Wilmore, will fly by for the spacecraft’s return flight in 2025.

This configuration is part of an ad hoc plan that NASA decided to implement in late August, after the space agency deemed the Starliner capsule too risky to return with Williams and Willmore. The two traveled aboard the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station in early June on what was expected to be a week-long test flight.

At liftoff, Hague and Gorbunov will be strapped inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, nicknamed Freedom, which will be mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket and the launch vehicle will blast off at full speed. The launch vehicle will roar and ignite nine huge engines located at its base to propel the missile system, which weighs 544,300 kilograms, into the air.

After about two and a half minutes, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will stop firing and separate from the second stage of the rocket. The second stage will then ignite its own engine and continue propelling the Crew Dragon capsule to more than 27,360 kilometers per hour, or 22 times the speed of sound.

As the crew reaches higher speeds, the rocket’s first stage will turn back and land on a ground pad in Florida so SpaceX can repair and reuse the vehicle.

Once the Crew Dragon capsule reaches orbital speed, the spacecraft will separate from the Falcon 9 second stage and begin maneuvering in orbit on its own, using its onboard thrusters to gradually adjust its position until it can dock with the International Space Station, which is expected to happen Around 5:30 PM ET this Sunday.

On September 6, Williams and Willmore watched as the Boeing-built capsule returned from the station without them.

Engineers have worked for months to understand the problems with helium leaks and propulsion failures that plagued the Starliner’s flight to the space station, and NASA finally announced that there were too many uncertainties and risks to be relied upon to carry the crew on their return flight. It’s not clear when the Boeing Starliner might fly again.

NASA remains in the same position as it was four years ago, with SpaceX being the sole provider of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which is designed to hand off crew rotation in space to the private sector. (Boeing and SpaceX both won contracts in 2014, and SpaceX began routine flights in 2020, while Boeing has struggled to push Starliner development to the finish line.)

To bring Williams and Willmore home, NASA turned to SpaceX, choosing to remove two previously assigned members of the Crew-9 team to make room for the Starliner test pilots.

Space agency advertisement At the end of August, NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman will be the two ejected members of the mission. Cardman was scheduled to make her maiden flight into space and was expected to be the Crew-9 mission commander.

Gorbunov, the Russian cosmonaut who earned his seat thanks to a ride-sharing agreement signed between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, remained on the crew. Cardman handed over commander duties – the highest position in a spaceflight – to Hague, who had already been appointed pilot of Crew 9.

“Handing over command to The Hague is both heartbreaking and an honor. “Nick and Alex are a truly excellent team, and they will be ready to step up,” Cardman said in a post on Twitter. Social platformPreviously Twitter, after the announcement.

“I only wish Wilson, Nick, Alex and I could fly together, but we chose without hesitation to be part of something much bigger than ourselves.” Astra ad per Aspira. Let’s go to crew 9.”

Meanwhile, Williams and Willmore became immersed in daily life aboard the space station. The duo moved from a lighter test mission schedule to taking on full-time crew member roles, with Williams assuming the role of commander in the orbiting laboratory.

Gorbunov and Hague will join them after docking with the space station scheduled for Sunday.

When asked if he was having difficulty adjusting to the prospect of waiting months more to return home, Wilmore said during a September 13 news conference from the space station: “I wouldn’t worry about it. I mean, it’s no use. So it was my transition — maybe it wasn’t immediate.” -But it was very close.

Williams said he misses his family and is disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter, but added: “This is my happy place. I love being out here in space. It’s fun. You know, every day you do something is work, in quotes, You can do it the other way around, you can do it on the side, so it adds a little bit of a different perspective.