NASA and SpaceX launched a new crew rotation mission from the US state of Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday.
This mission, codenamed “Crew-9”, transports NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS. This is NASA’s ninth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida at 1:17 p.m. Eastern Time (6:17 p.m. GMT) on Saturday. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time (10:30 p.m. GMT) on Sunday, according to NASA.
Crew-9 crew members will conduct more than 200 scientific investigations, including research on blood clotting, the effects of humidity on plants grown in space and changes in vision in astronauts, according to NASA.
The spacecraft is expected to return to Earth next February with Crew 9 astronauts, along with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore who traveled to the ISS in June aboard the malfunctioning Boeing Starliner and are been stuck in space ever since.
