SpaceX to launch capsule that will bring two stranded astronauts back from space station

SpaceX is set to launch two new crew members to the International Space Station on Saturday, in a capsule that will eventually bring home two NASA astronauts who flew to orbit on Boeing’s problem-plagued Starliner spacecraft.

Weather permitting, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday at 1:17 p.m. ET, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The flight, known as Crew-9, will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

The duo will join five other astronauts and cosmonauts already onboard the orbiting lab, rounding out the Expedition 72 crew.

Hague and Gorbunov are expected to remain at the space station until February. On their return flight back to Earth, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will ride with them.

Wilmore and Williams launched to the orbiting outpost on Boeing’s Starliner capsule in early June — the spacecraft’s first crewed test flight. They were initially expected to stay on the ISS for around eight days, but Starliner suffered helium leaks and problems with some of its thrusters.

After numerous delays, NASA opted to keep the two astronauts at the space station. The Boeing capsule, meanwhile, returned to Earth on Sept. 7 without any humans on board.

Originally, the Crew-9 flight was supposed to carry four crew members to the space station, but in order to leave seats open for Wilmore and Williams, two NASA astronauts will have to wait for a future launch.

NASA has been forced to delay the Crew-9 launch several times, including most recently because of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday as a Category 4 storm. Helene has since weakened to a tropical storm, but it has been lashing much of the Southeast with strong winds and heavy rain.

Earlier this week, NASA said weather officials had predicted a 55% chance of favorable weather conditions for Saturday’s launch. The main concerns, according to the space agency, are atmospheric conditions along the path that the rocket will take into orbit.