A SpaceX crew bound for the International Space Station (ISS) to shuttle back two stranded astronauts took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday (September 28) after the launch was delayed by Hurricane Helene.
The Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov has two of its four available seats empty so that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can return in February 2025.
Williams and Wilmore became the first crew to fly Boeing Starliner in June, and were meant to return after a brief mission, but technical problems led NASA to keep them on the ISS and bring the Starliner back unmanned, turning what was supposed to be an eight-day test into an eight-month mission.
The Crew-9 Mission was scheduled for Thursday (September 26) but delayed due to the Hurricane Helene. Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
(Reuters)
