The strength of Tropical Storm Helene recently intensified to a full-on hurricane. NASA and SpaceX announced the delay of the crew-9 mission launch as a result. It was expected to launch from Port Canaveral on Thursday, Sept. 26, but the plan has since changed to instead accommodate the launch on Saturday, Sept. 28.
“The change allows teams to complete a rehearsal of launch day activities Tuesday night with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, which rolled to Space Launch Complex-40 earlier in the day. Following rehearsal activities, the integrated system will move back to the hangar ahead of any potential storm activity,” NASA officials said in a statement Tuesday.
The announcement came just as the state of Florida went under a hurricane watch for Helene, which is set to make landfall as a category three hurricane Thursday evening.
“Although Tropical Storm Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the Florida panhandle, the storm system is large enough that high winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast,” NASA officials said.
The Dragon spacecraft sitting atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set to bring NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth. They will first transport NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station to complete the ninth crew rotation mission. During their five-month mission, they’ll carry the torch of performing ISS maintenance and conducting research. All of the astronauts will then return in February 2025.
The Exploratory Journal 