NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Falcon 9 Rocket & Dragon Spacecraft: Launch Prep

NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Falcon 9 Rocket & Dragon Spacecraft: Launch Prep

Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft at sunrise ahead of this weekend's launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Mission

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida

As preparations continue for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft is rolled out to the launch pad of Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission arrives at SpaceX’s hangar at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission arrives at SpaceX’s hangar at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40 following a brief static fire test ahead of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Mission launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida

Two SpaceX Crew-9 crewmates are counting down to a Saturday launch, weather permitting, and beginning a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. 

Commander Nick Hague of NASA and Mission Specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos (Russia) are at Kennedy Space Center in Florida preparing for their liftoff aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft targeted for no earlier than 1:17 p.m. EDT on Saturday, September 28, 2024, as the impacts from Hurricane Helene to the Florida peninsula are better understood. 

The duo will ride Dragon in low Earth orbit for a day before docking to the Harmony module’s forward port at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Hague and Gorbunov will open the hatch about an hour-and-a-half later and join Expedition 72 before returning to Earth in February 2025. 

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber/SpaceX

Image Dates: Sept. 23-25, 2024

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