SpaceX launched a reduced two-man crew on a flight to the International Space Station Saturday, along with supplies and a pair of empty seats for two Starliner astronauts waiting to hitch a ride home in February after an unexpected eight-and-a-half-month stay in orbit.Running two days late because of high winds, rain and clouds spawned by Hurricane Helene, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life and blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:17 p.m. EDT, climbing away on a northeasterly trajectory directly into the plane of the space station’s orbit.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off carrying NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9, Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, to the International Space Station from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. / Credit: Joe Skipper / REUTERSMonitoring the automated ascent from inside the Crew Dragon “Freedom” were commander Nick Hague, a veteran NASA astronaut, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, making his first flight.Crew Dragons normally launch with four crew members, but two Crew 9 astronauts — Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman, the original commander — were removed from the flight in August to free up seats that will be used by Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams when the Crew Dragon returns to Earth in February.This image provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov inside the SpaceX capsule on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. / Credit: NASA via APSaturday’s launch was the first piloted space flight from the Space Force Station since the early days of the Apollo moon program and the first ever for SpaceX, which launched 14 previous Crew Dragon missions from historic pad 39A at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.After boosting the Falcon 9 out of the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage, making its second flight, was programmed to fly itself back to landing at the Space Force station seven minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff.Four-and-a-half minutes after that, the Crew Dragon was expected to be released to fly on its own, kicking off a 28-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station. If all goes well, the spacecraft will dock at the lab’s forward port at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.Crew 9: Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov (left) and commander Nick Hague (right). They’ll be joined aboard the International Space Station by Starliner commander Barry Standing by to welcome Hague and Gorbunov aboard will be Wilmore and Williams, now …
