SpaceX launches mission to rescue trapped astronauts – 09/29/2024 – Science

A SpaceX mission took off, this Saturday (28), with two passengers on board to rescue American astronauts trapped for several months on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Falcon 9 rocket took off at 12:17 pm Brasília, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a launch from a platform used for the first time for a manned mission.

“Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on this successful launch,” wrote US space agency director Bill Nelson.

“We live in an exciting time of exploration and innovation,” he added.

On board are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexandre Gorbounov.

When they return in February, they are expected to take space veterans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams with them.

Both embarked in early June aboard a new spacecraft developed by Boeing, the Starliner, as part of the first crewed test flight to the ISS.

The spacecraft was supposed to bring them back to Earth eight days later, but problems detected in its propulsion system led NASA to question its reliability.

After long weeks of testing, the space agency recovered the empty Boeing capsule and decided to bring back the two castaways with the SpaceX mission, called Crew-9.

“We know this launch is unique, with just two passengers,” admitted Jim Free, associate administrator at NASA, on Friday during a press conference in which he thanked SpaceX “for its support and flexibility.”

SpaceX

Billionaire Elon Musk’s company is responsible for this regular ISS crew rotation mission, whose duration, like all others, should be around six months.

However, Crew-9’s liftoff was postponed from mid-August to late September to give NASA teams more time to make a decision regarding the Boeing spacecraft.

The launch had to be postponed again for a few days due to Hurricane Helene, which hit Florida this week.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday at around 6:30 pm Brasília.

In total, Nick Hague and Alexandre Gorbounov will spend about five months on the ISS, and Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams about eight.

During this period, around 200 scientific experiments will have been carried out, according to schedule.

During a press conference in early September, Wilmore and Williams said they were adapting well to their extended stay.

“The transition wasn’t that difficult,” Williams said. “We’re both Marines, we’ve had to deploy before. It doesn’t surprise us that missions change.”