Cape Canaveral, Sept 29: A SpaceX crew successfully launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, aiming to bring back two astronauts after a delay caused by Hurricane Helene.
The Dragon capsule, which carries NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, has two of its four seats empty for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who are set to return in February 2025.
Wilmore and Williams were the first crew to operate Boeing’s Starliner in June but had their mission extended due to technical issues, turning what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight into an eight-month stay on the ISS.
The Crew-9 Mission was originally scheduled to launch on Thursday, September 26, but was postponed due to the hurricane’s impact. Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region on Thursday night as a Category 4 storm, with winds reaching 140 mph (225 kph), causing significant damage such as overturned boats, fallen trees, submerged cars, and flooded streets before moving northward through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas.
