SpaceX Crew-9 to bring back Sunita Williams: NASA recalls ’very unusual problem’ with Dragon spacecraft

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) informed on Friday about a "very unusual problem" that SpaceX Dragon spacecraft witnessed just ahead of the Crew-9 launch to the International Space Station.

The US space agency also shared an update on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission that was earlier postponed from September 26 to September 28 in the wake of "any potential storm activity" due to Tropical Storm Helene.

Will Hurricane Helene further delay the Crew-9 mission? NASA Commercial Crew posted on X on Saturday, "Weather officers with @SLDelta45 predict a 55% of favorable weather conditions for launch, scheduled for 1:17pm ET Sept. 28."

The NASA said, “The cumulus cloud rule, flight through precipitation, and surface electric fields rule are primary weather concerns.”

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket are now back on the pad and cargo loading will soon begin. “Both rolled back to the hangar on Wednesday to protect from Hurricane Helene,” NASA said.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said during the press briefing, “We are vertical at the pad, and the next big activity will be loading the cargo here this afternoon and then getting ready for flight.”

'Very unusual problem'

Steve Stich talked about a "very unusual problem" that the team faced earlier. He said, “...Merlin engines produce soot as a by-product. And at [launch] Pad 40, that soot goes out and exhausts out to the East for the water, and the wind of the day blew that soot back on to the Dragon spacecraft...so we rolled the vehicle back in…”

Later, an official, who joined the press conference from SpaceX headquarters, said, “As Steve talked about, we had a kind of unique situation where the winds were pretty much out of the east and blew some soot back on the Dragon vehicle. We saw that on the Dragon vehicle, we cleaned it off, we went ahead and repainted some areas, specially on the radiator. It's important that the radiators radiate heat in the proper way in the space, so we had to put some paint on…”

NASA informed earlier this week that SpaceX fired the nine Merlin first-stage engines of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket during a routine static fire test on Tuesday, September 24, at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

"The successful static fire test allows NASA and SpaceX to move forward with launch operations to send NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement on September 25.

‘Big change’ in Crew 9 mission

NASA said in a press conference on Friday, “We had a pretty big change" in the crew-composition of the mission." He was referring to the downsizing of the SpaceX mission crewmates.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is launching two astronauts, instead of four as initially planned. That's because NASA decided to downsize two other crewmembers – its original commander Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson – from the flight to make room for two astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore –  who have been "stuck" on the ISS since their Boeing Starliner capsule return to Earth without them on September 7.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will now return home along iwth Crew-9 mission crewmates – Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov – in February 2025. 

Astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson relinquished their seats so their colleagues could return to Earth. “We’re going to find spots for them to fly,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said of Cardman and Wilson. “We really appreciate how hard it is to give up a mission and wait a little bit longer," he added.

Crew-9 launch: NASA shares timeline

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 two-man crew is set for their mission to launch from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will launch aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket around 1:17 pm EDT (10:47 pm IST) on Saturday, September 28.

The spacecraft is targeted to dock at the ISS around 5:30 pm Sunday, Sept. 29.