The National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) is all set to launch a mission on September 28 to facilitate the return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore. SpaceX is preparing to send a two-member crew to the International Space Station (ISS), where the two astronauts have been stranded since June.
The Crew-9 mission, which marks the ninth operational flight for SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:17 p.m. EDT (10:47 p.m. IST) It is going to happen.
The Crew-9 mission consists of NASA’s Nick Hague, who serves as commander, and mission specialist Alexander Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. If everything goes according to plan, the crew is expected to dock with the ISS on September 29 at 5:30 pm EDT (Monday, September 30 at 3 am IST).
Typically, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules carry four astronauts to the ISS. However, for this mission, two seats will remain vacant to facilitate the return of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been on the ISS since June 6. They arrived at the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, during which it suffered several helium leaks and thruster failures. Its docking process.
After extensive analysis and testing, NASA determined that bringing astronauts home on the Starliner was too great a risk. Therefore, on September 6, the agency decided to return the spacecraft without a crew. On September 28, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will carry Hague and Gorbunov to the orbiting laboratory for an estimated five-month science mission.
In the unlikely event that an emergency evacuation of the ISS becomes necessary prior to the arrival of Crew-9, a contingency plan has been created. Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will use the Crew-8 Dragon capsule, which is currently docked to the ISS, and are scheduled to depart shortly after Crew-9’s arrival. Since Crew-8 already has four assigned astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will use temporary seats in the cargo area of ​​the capsule if an emergency arises.
Once Crew-9 docks, emergency evacuation planning for Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will shift to using their newly arrived spacecraft.
“We’re going to find places for them to fly,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said during a press conference. “We really appreciate how difficult it is to abandon a mission and wait a while.”
