NASA’s live coverage is underway on NASA+ and the agency’s website for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.
At 1:17 p.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, will begin their journey to the space station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Launch weather officers with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 55% of favorable weather conditions for the launch. The cumulus cloud rule, flight through precipitation, and surface electric fields rule are the primary weather concerns.
Right now, the Crew-9 crewmembers are inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, undergoing medical checks and receiving a weather briefing before suiting up.
Hague and Gorbunov will join NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived at the space station in June, to complete their crew contingent. The crew will spend about five months at the orbiting laboratory conducting experiments, research demonstrations, and spacewalks to perform maintenance on the space station before returning in February 2025.
Stay with us throughout the day as we countdown toward launch. Updates will be posted on the mission blog, @commercial_crew on X, or commercial crew on Facebook.