NASA and SpaceX are still targeting a Saturday launch for the Crew-9 mission, whose astronauts will head to orbit aboard a Dragon spacecraft that will bring the Starliner crew back to Earth next year.

Officials had been planning a launch window around the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall Thursday night in Florida in another part of the state from where rocket launches take place. The storm, the first known Category 4 storm to ever hit the Big Bend coast, was powerful enough to still send strong winds and heavy rain to the Cape Canaveral area where NASA's Kennedy Space Center is located.

The two Crew-9 astronauts, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, arrived last Saturday at the space center to begin preparations for the imminent launch, which will take place at the neighboring Space Force Station.

Here's how to watch the Crew-9 takeoff and what to know about the mission.

SpaceX Crew-9:What to know about the mission that will return Starliner astronauts

When is the Crew-9 mission scheduled for launch?

The Dragon is scheduled to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 1:17 p.m. EDT Saturday from Space Launch Complex-40, NASA officials confirmed Friday during a news conference.

Once in orbit, the vehicle will separate from the rocket and power on to the International Space Station, where the crew will spent about five months. The mission, which was initially set for Aug. 18, was delayed for more than a month while NASA and Boeing officials worked to figure out what to do about the troubled Starliner spacecraft taking up the Dragon's docking port.

Now that the Boeing Starliner capsule has returned to Earth intact – albeit, without its crew – the Dragon has been cleared for takeoff. But Helene threw a new wrench into the plans, forcing NASA and SpaceX to scuttle the launch another three times this week.

How to watch the Crew-9 mission launch

NASA will provide coverage of the launch, the subsequent docking and the activities that precede the mission.

On launch day, coverage begins at 9:10 a.m. EDT on NASA+ and the space agency’s website.

Following the ascent, NASA will switch to audio only before coverage resumes at 3:30 p.m. Sunday when the Dragon prepares to dock and the hatch opens to welcome the astronauts aboard the station.

FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network, will also provide live coverage at floridatoday.com/space.

What is the Crew-9 mission?

The SpaceX flight represents the ninth crew rotation mission to the station under NASA's commercial crew program as the agency shifts to paying private companies for missions it once would carry out itself.

Once aboard the space station, Hague and Gorbunov will become members of Expedition 72, where they will spend six months conducting experiments, research demonstrations and spacewalks to perform maintenance. Much of it will be to prepare for human exploration deep into the cosmos.

The Crew-9 astronauts will now not only relieve Crew-8, whose team have been at the space station since March, but will also arrive on the vehicle that will bring home Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The NASA astronauts flew in June to the station aboard the Boeing Starliner for what was supposed to be a 10-day stay as part of the inaugural crewed test flight of the vehicle.

When Williams and Wilmore arrived on June 6 at the space station, engineers discovered that the Starliner craft had experienced multiple helium leaks and had issues with its propulsion system prompting NASA to eventually make the call to send the vehicle back to Earth without its crew.

The Starliner astronauts will now instead remain at the space station until February, when they will return with the Crew-9 team on the Dragon.

Meet the Crew-9 astronauts

For that reason, NASA and SpaceX will not be able to send a full contingent of four Crew-9 astronauts.

Here are the two astronauts heading into orbit:

  • NASA astronaut Nick Hague, of Belleville, Kansas, will serve as crew commander, making this his third launch and second mission to the space station. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013, Hague, also an active-duty colonel in the U.S. Space Force, has spent 203 days in space and conducted three spacewalks.
  • Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will embark on his first trip to the space station as a mission specialist. The Russian studied engineering at the Moscow Aviation Institute, graduating with a specialty in operating and repairing aircraft before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018.

NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, previously announced as crewmates for the mission, are eligible for reassignment on a future mission, NASA said.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

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