NASA’s SpaceX crew-9 duo lands at Kennedy Space Center, gears-up to ‘rescue’ Sunita Williams from ISS

NASA SpaceX Crew-9, comprising of astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mission, tasked to bring back "stranded" Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from space, is set to launch on September 26.

Hague and Gorbunov will now quarantine at the Neil A Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Centre.

While there, they’ll conduct a dry dress rehearsal of the mission, sleep shift to align their resting and waking periods with mission requirements, rehearse flight procedures, as well as make calls to family and friends.

The SpaceX Crew-9 will also be greeted by NASA leaders for a brief welcome ceremony. Kennedy Space Center's deputy director, Kelvin Manning, and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program deputy program manager, Dana Hutcherson will be a part of the ceremony.

The ceremony will stream live on NASA+ and the agency’s website. 

Hague and Gorbunov will fly to the International Space Station as commander and mission specialist, respectively, as part of a two-crew member flight aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. In addition to September 26 (at 2:05 pm EDT or 11:35 IST), launch opportunities are available on September 27 and September 28.

According to NASA, Hague and Gorbonov will become part of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the ISS. They will join NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The Crew 9 mission will bring the space station’s population up to seven.

Crew 9 mission has no pilot

Initially, when SpaceX Crew 9 mission was supposed to launch with four astronauts, Nick Hague was the pilot assigned to the mission. But when the crew changed, Hague was assigned the role of a commander to the Crew 9 mission.

"...the focus of effort over the last three weeks is what do we need to do differently to be able to launch as a crew of two, as a crew without a pilot," Hague said.