 "SpaceX launches 2-man Crew Dragon 'rescue mission' for Butch Wilmore & Sunita Williams at ISS")
SpaceX launched what soon turned out to be a rescue mission to retrieve two stranded astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. The Falcon 9, with a reduced two-man crew, was launched on a flight to the International Space Station on Saturday. The spacecraft launched along with supplies and a pair of two empty seats for the Starliner astronauts who are waiting to come back home in February.
It is pertinent to note that the mission is running two days late because of high winds, rains, and clouds that engulfed the skies by Hurricane Helene. Falcon 9 roared to life and blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket was launched at 1:17 pm (local time), climbing away on a northeasterly trajectory directly into the plane of the space station’s orbit.
Falcon 9 launches Crew-9, the first human spaceflight mission to launch from pad 40 in Florida pic.twitter.com/BYpPPtaKqm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2024
“Falcon 9 launches Crew-9, the first human spaceflight mission to launch from pad 40 in Florida,” the commercial space company headed by billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. The mission comprised of commander Nick Hague, a veteran NASA astronaut, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, making his first flight.
A mission to rescue Williams and Wilmore
It is pertinent to note that Crew Dragon was supposed to launch with four crew members. However, two Crew-9 astronauts – Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman, the original commander, were removed from the flight in August in order to make space for Williams and Wilmore. The astronauts are stranded in space for eight-and-a-half months after the Boeing Starliner witnessed a malfunction and was deemed not fit to carry astronauts back home.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe Saturday launch was also the first piloted space flight from pad 40 and the first ever from the Space Force station for SpaceX. The company has already launched 14 previous Crew Dragon missions from the historic pad 39A at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.
The Crew Dragon will be welcomed by Wilmore and Williams, who is now serving as the commander of the International Space Station, along with Soyuz MS-22 commander Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who were launched to space on September 11.
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