SpaceX will launch two astronauts on a sort of rescue mission today (Sept. 28), and you can watch it live.
Crew-9, the ninth operational SpaceX astronaut flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, is scheduled to lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 1:17 pm EDT (1717 GMT).
You can watch the event live here at Space.com via NASA+, formerly NASA Television. Coverage will begin at 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT).
The two astronauts on board are commander Nick Hague, who is with NASA and the U.S. Space Force, and mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Assuming today's launch goes on time, Hague and Gorbunov are scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday (Sept. 29) at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT), with coverage starting on NASA+ two hours beforehand. The hatch opening between the station and Dragon will occur at roughly 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT).
SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules usually carry four people to the ISS on such missions. But Crew-9 is leaving two seats empty so the Dragon can bring home two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — who reached the orbiting lab in June, on the first-ever crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule. Starliner returned to Earth uncrewed on Sept. 7, however, after suffering thruster problems in orbit.
So Crew-9's Dragon was pressed into service to bring the Starliner duo home in February 2025. A crew shuffle happened in August, removing rookie Zena Cardman and three-time space shuttle astronaut Stephanie Wilson from Crew-9 to make room for Williams and Wilmore. (Wilson and Cardman are eligible for future missions.)
In the unlikely event the ISS needs an emergency evacuation before Crew-9 arrives, there's yet another backup for Williams and Wilmore: they will use the Crew-8 Dragon capsule, which remains docked at the station (and will depart shortly after Crew-9 arrives). Since four astronauts are already assigned to Crew-8's seats, Wilmore and Williams would use temporary seats in the cargo area should that scenario unfold.
Once Crew-9 docks, Williams and Wilmore's emergency evacuation plans will pivot to using that spacecraft instead.
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