SpaceX Crew-9 was the ninth operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight and the 15th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. Originally scheduled to carry a crew of four to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-August 2024, the mission was delayed by more than a month by problems with the Boeing Starliner Calypso spacecraft that was docked at the ISS for the Boeing Crew Flight Test. In response, NASA decided to send the Boeing capsule back to Earth uncrewed on September 7, 2024 and on September 28, launch Crew-9 with two crew members, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov. The two Crew-9 members would then later return with two additional crew members, Sunita Williams and Barry E. Willmore, of the Boeing Crew Flight Test, for a total of four crew members aboard the Dragon capsule. Crew-9 launched on September 28, 2024 at 17:17:21 UTC (1:17:21 pm EDT, local time at the launch site) and returned on March 18, 2025, at 21:57:07 UTC (5:57:07 pm EDT), concluding the mission with a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The Crew-9 mission marked several milestones. It was the first crewed mission to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40; astronaut Nick Hague was the first active U.S. Space Force Guardian to launch to space; and the mission was the last Dragon capsule to splash down in the eastern United States.
Crew The mission was initially to bring four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS): NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Cardman was to be the commander and Hague the pilot, while Wilson and Gorbunov would serve as mission specialists. However, due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner, NASA decided to return the Starliner uncrewed and launch Crew-9 with two open seats to return the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts to Earth. On August 24, 2024, NASA administrator Bill Nelson, along with a panel of agency officials, announced that the Boeing Starliner would return uncrewed, and its astronauts would return on Crew-9. On August 30, NASA announced that Hague and Gorbunov would fly on Crew-9 with Hague serving as commander. Gorbunov was required to fly as part of a NASA-Roscosmos crew interchange agreement. Before the official announcement, Ars Technica reported that there was disagreement within NASA over who should fill the commander's seat in those six days. According to the reporting, NASA Chief Astronaut, Joe Acaba had initially selected Cardman to continue as commander, which had been met with some concerns in the astronaut office, stemming from NASA's history of never launching a mission without a test pilot or experienced astronaut in command. Both Cardman and Gorbunov are rookie astronauts who have never served as a test pilot. Hague, on the other hand, has prior spaceflight experience and is one of the few individuals who have survived a launch abort (with Soyuz MS-10). Following the crew changes, SpaceX, NASA, Cardman, Hague, Wilson, and Gorbunov collaborated for three weeks to identify how Hague could assume many of the tasks typically divided between the commander and pilot and determine which tasks could be assigned to Gorbunov, who would sit in the pilot's seat during launch. While Gorbunov is a qualified engineer and holds the rank of test cosmonaut (making him eligible to be a Soyuz commander), he had only previously received basic training on the Dragon in his role as a mission specialist. Although only serving in a limited capacity, Gorbunov became the first Russian cosmonaut to be at the controls of an American spacecraft.
Original crew
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