SpaceX mission postponed to Saturday due to Hurricane Helen in the United States of America – Al-Mu'aref

NASA and SpaceX on Wednesday postponed the launch of the Crew-9 crewed mission to next Saturday due to Tropical Storm Helene, which meteorologists expect will hit Florida's west coast on Thursday as a major hurricane.

This mission, which is expected to return Starliner astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore to Earth, The probe was scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon.from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Florida's east coast, but weather forecasts forced the launch to be postponed until Saturday at 1:17 p.m. local time (17:17 GMT), according to NASA.

Meteorologists expect Storm Helen to turn into a major hurricane.A Category 3 or higher hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which has a maximum of 5, through Thursday when it is expected to reach Florida's west coast and cause severe weather across much of that peninsula.

NASA placed the Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad on Wednesday. Above it is the Dragon capsule, both from SpaceX, to ignite the engines and the final tests that will be conducted tonight for the launch.

NASA and SpaceX successfully completed final tests Monday before launching what will be the ninth crew rotation to the International Space Station in Elon Musk's spacecraft, according to the space agency.

Crew-9 will be led by astronaut Nick Hague, mission commander, and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, specialist, who will remain on the orbiting laboratory for about five months, conducting research and spacewalks.

The mission was scheduled to take off with a crew of four, but would only do so with Hague and Gorbunov. They will replace Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunni” Williams, the astronauts who will make the return trip aboard the Starliner capsule.

Earlier this month, Boeing's spacecraft returned without its two-person crew due to unresolved technical issues, prompting NASA to keep Wilmore and Williams on the space station until February 2025, when “Return of the Dragon” is scheduled to air.

One change resulting from the frenetic Starliner test mission is a change to the Crew-9 launch pad.

The planned project for Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center has been moved to Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which will host the first manned mission launch.