SpaceX to resume astronaut launches on Aug. 18 with Crew-9 mission to ISS

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Crew-9 will be the first crewed launch on a Falcon 9 rocket after one of the vehicles experienced a rare failure in July.

four people in white spacesuits with the visors up pose and smile in front of a white cone-shaped spacecraft
The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission (from left): Alexsandr Gorbunov of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Zena Cadman and Stephanie Wilson. (Image credit: SpaceX)

NASA and SpaceX are looking to launch the Crew-9 mission around the middle of this month.

Crew-9, SpaceX's next astronaut launch to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, is currently set for Aug. 18. The four astronauts that will be on board are commander Zena Cardman, pilot Nick Hague, mission specialist Stephanie Wilson and mission specialist Alexsandr Gorbunov, of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

The mission still has to get final launch approval from NASA, after the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed on July 11 due to an oxygen leak. While the rocket has been cleared for flight and recently resumed uncrewed launches of SpaceX's Starlink satellites, NASA wants to ensure the vehicle is safe for crews ahead of the target Aug. 18 launch date.

"We've been following along all the way through the investigation," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, during a Crew-9 media briefing on July 26. 

Stich added that SpaceX has already changed out the sensor hardware that was responsible for the July 11 oxygen leak on a separate second stage, and that NASA feels confident the change will certify Crew-9 for launch.

"We followed that testing, and we'll follow the same testing on our stage, so we'll get a check of that sensor in the second stage test," Stich said. "We'll work through all the data, work through all the analysis and certification, and then we'll be ready to go fly."

NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 members stand in front of a Falcon 9 first-stage booster at SpaceX’s HangarX facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Image credit: NASA/JSC)
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As its name implies, Crew-9 will be the ninth astronaut rotation that SpaceX flies to the ISS for NASA. However, it will be the 10th crewed flight of the Dragon spacecraft as part of the space agency's Commercial Crew Program. The first was Demo-2, a two-astronaut test flight to the ISS that launched in May 2020.

Crew Dragon has also flown several private astronaut missions to orbit and to the ISS, including the historic all-civilian Inspiration4 flight in 2021 and three flights for Houston-based Axiom Space.

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Brett Tingley
Brett Tingley
Managing Editor, Space.com

Brett is curious about emerging aerospace technologies, alternative launch concepts, military space developments and uncrewed aircraft systems. Brett's work has appeared on Scientific American, The War Zone, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery and more. Brett has English degrees from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett enjoys skywatching throughout the dark skies of the Appalachian mountains.

1 Comment Comment from the forums
  • newtons_laws
    If the Crew-9 are going to launch on SpaceX to the ISS on the 18th of August then the troubled Boeing Starliner will have to depart before then, as the ISS US segment only has two docking ports, both of which are currently occupied (by the Crew-8 Dragon capsule and the Boeing Starliner respectively). Crew-8 will stay on board the ISS until well after the Crew-9 arrives to give a handover period, so it looks like the Starliner will have to depart to allow the Crew-9 dragon to dock.
    Reply