| SpaceX Crew-9 | |||||||||||
| Names List: | USCV-9 | ||||||||||
| Mission Type: | ISS crew transport | ||||||||||
| Operator: | SpaceX | ||||||||||
| Mission Duration: | 180 days (planned) | ||||||||||
| Manufacturer: | SpaceX | ||||||||||
| Crew Size: | 4 | ||||||||||
| Crew Expedition: | Expedition 72 | ||||||||||
| Launch Date: | 24 September 2024 (planned) | ||||||||||
| Launch Rocket: | Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1085.2) | ||||||||||
| Launch Site: | Cape Canaveral, SLC40 | ||||||||||
| Landing Date: | March 2025 (planned) | ||||||||||
| Landing Site: | Pacific Ocean (planned) | ||||||||||
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric orbit | ||||||||||
| Orbit Regime: | Low Earth orbit | ||||||||||
| Orbit Inclination: | 51.66° | ||||||||||
| Apsis: | gee | ||||||||||
| Docking: |
| ||||||||||
| Insignia: | SpaceX_Crew-9_logo.png | ||||||||||
| Insignia Caption: | SpaceX Crew-9 mission patch | ||||||||||
| Crew Photo: | The Official Portrait of NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 (53585829605 886005b260 o).jpg | ||||||||||
| Crew Photo Caption: | From left: Wilson, Gorbunov, Hague and Cardman | ||||||||||
| Programme: | Commercial Crew Program | ||||||||||
| Previous Mission: | SpaceX Crew-8 | ||||||||||
| Next Mission: | SpaceX Crew-10 | ||||||||||
| Programme2: | Crew Dragon flights | ||||||||||
| Previous Mission2: | Polaris Dawn | ||||||||||
| Next Mission2: | Fram2 | ||||||||||
SpaceX Crew-9 is planned to be the ninth operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight and the 15th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission will transport four crew members – NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – to the International Space Station (ISS). Originally scheduled for 18 August 2024, the launch was delayed to 24 September due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner.
The Crew-9 mission will mark several milestones for the Crew Dragon spacecraft. It will be the first crewed mission to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 and the first to conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
SpaceX Crew-9 will be the ninth operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight to the International Space Station (ISS) and the 15th crewed orbital mission for a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The flight will deliver four crew members to the ISS for Expedition 72, a six-month science mission: NASA astronauts Zena Cardman (commander), Nick Hague (pilot), and Stephanie Wilson (mission specialist), along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.[1]
This will be the first spaceflight for Cardman and Gorbunov, Hague's second mission to the ISS, and Wilson's fourth spaceflight, having previously logged 42 days in space across three Space Shuttle Discovery missions. The Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom, is a veteran of previous spaceflights, including SpaceX Crew-4 and Axiom Space's Ax-2 and Ax-3 missions.[2] The Falcon 9 first-stage booster, designated B1085, will be making its second flight.
Originally scheduled for 18 August 2024, the launch has been rescheduled to 24 September due to ongoing concerns about the spacecraft of the Boeing Crew Flight Test, currently docked to the ISS. This delay will provide NASA additional time to assess the Starliner's condition and develop a safe return plan for its crew.[3] [4] If Starliner becomes unsafe to return to Earth with its crew, NASA has several return options, including launching the Crew-9 with two empty seats in order to return the Starliner's crew and returning the Boeing spacecraft to Earth uncrewed autonomously.[5] [6]
Crew-9 was slated to use Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center—which had supported all previous SpaceX's crewed missions—when Crew-9's launch was rescheduled to 24 September, it was brought uncomfortably close to the launch NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which must launch from LC-39A during a 21-day window in early October. To avoid the scheduling conflicts and ensure ample preparation time for both missions, SpaceX will launch Crew-9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.[7] This will be the first crewed mission to lift off from SLC-40. SpaceX had been constructing a crew access tower at this location since 2023 to facilitate such operations.[8]
The mission is scheduled to end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in March 2025, a first for a Crew Dragon mission. While Dragon 1 missions had previously landed in the Pacific, SpaceX and NASA had shifted recovery operations to the East Coast in 2019. The move allowed astronauts and critical cargo to return to Kennedy Space Center more quickly after spashdown, and SpaceX opened a facility in Florida to take in capsules after flight and prepare them for the next mission. However, the move had an unforeseen consequence, the trunk module had to be jettisoned before reentry and while the team expected it would burn up, SpaceX became aware of at least four cases of trunk debris being found on land. The shift back to Pacific Ocean splashdowns means that the trunk can stay attached longer and be directed towards a remote area of the ocean (nicknamed the Spacecraft cemetery), where any debris that survives reentry will be unlikely to cause damage.[9] [10]