SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom atop Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, at 1717 UTC on Saturday, Sept. 28. Aboard are Crew-9 mission's NASA astronaut colonel and U.S. Space Force colonel Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov; with 2 empty seats reserved for the return next year of Boeing Starliner crewmates Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who are stuck in the International Space Station(ISS).
The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, as expected, returned to Earth, landing at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, about 8 minutes after liftoff. The Crew Dragon capsule meanwhile, continued its journey to the space station with which it's scheduled to dock on Sunday (Sept. 29) at 2230 UTC; followed by hatch opening about an hour and 45 minutes later.
"That was a sweet ride," Hague, Crew-9's commander, radioed SpaceX's launch control after reaching orbit with crewmate Gorbunov.
Dragon Freedom has flown three other missions to the ISS: NASA's Crew-4 flight and two commercial trips for Axiom Space, Ax-2 and Ax-3.
Saturday's was the first-ever astronaut launch from SLC-40 -- SpaceX's first Florida launch pad which has seen many uncrewed launches over the years.
The Elon Musk company and NASA spent two years upgrading the SLC-40 with a new crew launch tower, access arm and emergency escape slide to prepare it for astronaut flights.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were taken off Crew-9 mission to make room for Williams and Wilmore.
"I think it was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, that's my rocket and that's my crew, but I also know that I'm not the only person who can think that," Cardman, Crew-9's original commander, said after watching the launch, her voice breaking at times. "There are many people who made this mission happen, and there are people on orbit who will be taking this capsule home, and it makes me very proud to know that I am one of many people who can say that's my crew."
NASA officials said they will work to reassign Cardman and Wilson to a new mission in the future.
"A crew change is not a small thing," NASA's Deputy Adminstrator Pam Melroy, a former space shuttle commander, said in a post-launch briefing. "It's very hard for Nick and Alex. It's also hard for Zena and Stephanie. But I think it's a reflection of the fact that human spaceflight is complicated and dynamic, and we need to be agile and focus on the mission."
