Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.A SpaceX mission due to take flight Saturday aims to unite the Boeing Starliner astronauts with the spacecraft that will bring them home. NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have already been on the International Space Station more than 100 days longer than expected.The mission, called Crew-9, is on track to take off as soon as 1:17 p.m. ET Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA will stream the event live on its website.The space agency previously delayed the launch attempt from Thursday, rolling the spacecraft back into its hangar as Hurricane Helene threatened Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. Mission teams reset everything at the launchpad after the danger had passed.“We rolled out a little late this morning,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, at a Friday news conference. “We are vertical at the pad.”A backup launch window is also set for 12:54 p.m. ET Sunday should weather or technical issues force a scrub of Saturday’s attempt.Unlike other routine trips ferrying astronauts to and from the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — of which SpaceX has already launched eight — the outbound leg of this mission will carry only two crew members instead of four: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.Two other seats will fly empty, reserved for Williams and Wilmore to occupy on the spacecraft’s return flight in 2025.The configuration is part of an ad hoc plan that NASA chose to implement in late August after the space agency deemed the Starliner capsule too risky to return with Williams and Wilmore. The two rode the Starliner to the International Space Station in early June for what was expected to be about a weeklong test flight.At liftoff, Hague a …
