On Saturday, September 28, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Falcon 9 rocket launched into space from Florida, with the plan to bring back two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station. The spacecraft successfully docked at the space station on Sunday evening Eastern time. Additionally, SpaceX reported an anomaly with the Falcon rocket’s second stage during its descent into the sea.
The mission by SpaceX is named “Crew-9”. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station at around 5:30 pm Eastern time on Sunday.
NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams travelled to the International Space Station in early June aboard the Boeing Starliner for a scheduled one-week test flight. However, due to safety considerations, they were unable to return to Earth as planned and were stranded at the space station, dubbed by the public as “rogue” astronauts.
In a post on the social media platform X, NASA stated that shortly after the Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov boarded the International Space Station.
The SpaceX “Crew-9” mission was originally meant to transport four astronauts to the International Space Station. However, NASA decided to turn Crew-9 into a “rescue” mission to bring Wilmore and Williams back home, requiring the spacecraft to make room for the two “rogue” astronauts.
Wilmore, Williams, Hague, and Gorbunov will form the “Crew-9” mission team, spending 5 months in space before returning to Earth together in early February next year.
The hatch of the spacecraft opened around 7:04 pm Eastern time, allowing Hague and Gorbunov to enter the space station. Shortly after, Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, Wilmore, and the other seven crew members currently at the space station participated in a welcome ceremony.
Both Williams and Wilmore are veteran astronauts of early space station missions, making it easy for them to adapt to space until next year. Williams noted that the microgravity environment is a “happy place” for her.
On Saturday afternoon, Hague and Gorbunov launched into space aboard the Dragon spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Despite their successful arrival at the designated orbit, SpaceX later revealed that the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage (upper stage) encountered an issue after separating from the spacecraft.
In a post on X, the company shared, “After the successful launch of Crew-9 today, the Falcon 9 second stage landed in the sea as planned, but experienced an anomaly during the deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean but outside the target area.”
SpaceX stated that they would pause the use of the Falcon 9 rocket, the most frequently launched rocket in the world, upon encountering this anomaly. The company mentioned in the post, “Once we have a better understanding of the root cause, we will resume launches.”