SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, including Boeing Starliner crew, fly Dragon spacecraft to new ISS parking spot (video)

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The astronauts moved the Dragon capsule to a port on top of the space station, where it will stay until February 2025.

Four astronauts moved their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to a new space station docking port on Sunday (Nov. 3) to make way for an incoming cargo ship.

The SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, including two crew members formerly aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, moved their Crew Dragon capsule Freedom to an unused parking spot on top of the International Space Station ahead of the planned Nov. 4 launch of an uncrewed Dragon resupply ship by the company.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch that cargo variant of Dragon from NASA's Kennedy Space Statin in Florida on Monday at 9:29 p.m. EST (0229 GMT) carrying more than 3 tons of supplies for the ISS crew. It should arrive Tuesday morning (Nov. 5) if all goes well.

A black and white SpaceX capsule is parked at a space station with an inset of astronauts at the controls.

Crew-9 astronauts on SpaceX's Dragon Freedom capsule moved their ship to a new docking port at the International Space Station on Nov. 3, 2024. (Image credit: NASA TV)

During Sunday's Crew-9 Dragon relocation, the capsule's four-astronaut crew undocked from the ISS's Harmony module at 6:35 a.m. EST (1335 GMT) and redocked at 7:25a.m. EST (1425 GMT), moving from the forward-facing port to the space-facing port. At the time of docking, the Dragon capsule and ISS were sailing high above southern Brazil, NASA said.

On board Dragon were NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, both originally assigned to Crew-9, along with former Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams of NASA. The astronauts will return to Earth on Dragon Freedom in February 2025.

Related: SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft arrives at ISS to help bring Starliner astronauts home (video)

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A SpaceX Dragon space capsule docked at the International Space Station with nosecone open
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom capsule is seen docked on the International Space station's space-facing port after a successful relocation on Nov. 3, 2024.(Image credit: NASA TV)
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— SpaceX Crew-9 dropped 2 NASA astronauts from ISS mission, but they were prepared (video)

— SpaceX launches Crew-9 astronauts from upgraded Florida pad to return Boeing Starliner crew home

— SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft arrives at ISS to help bring Starliner astronauts home (video)

The Starliner duo were reassigned to Crew-9 after NASA determined it was too great of a risk to bring them home safely aboard the Boeing spacecraft to conclude their test ISS mission. Starliner experienced unexpected propulsion issues during docking with the ISS June 6 and the cause and remedy could not be pinned down after nearly two months of troubleshooting.

NASA originally planned to launch two other agency astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, aboard Crew-9. They were removed from the mission to leave two empty seats for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth with the rest of Crew-9, in February 2025. (Wilson and Cardman remain eligible for future ISS missions.)

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the successful undocking, relocation and redocking of the Dragon capsule Freedom and its astronaut crew on Nov. 3.

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Elizabeth Howell
Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. 

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 24launch
    Oh to be a fly on the wall inside the Crew Dragon capsule to hear what Butch and Suni had to say about the state-of-the-art Dragon capsules compared to the 60's era Starliner. Of course they're all professional astronauts but they're people too and this kind of technology is their industry. Their excitement and amazement would be difficult to hide.
    Reply
  • Rob77
    Four astronauts to move Dragon a few metres seems excessive, however understandable if they were doing a test run & fit for the new astronauts. So, did SpaceX send up extra spacesuits for them or are are they able to keep their Starliner flight suits?
    Reply
  • ChrisA
    Rob77 said:
    Four astronauts to move Dragon a few metres seems excessive, however understandable if they were doing a test run & fit for the new astronauts. So, did SpaceX send up extra spacesuits for them or are are they able to keep their Starliner flight suits?
    They ALWAYS put all the astronauts onboard when they move the capsules. The reason is if the docking fails and they can't reconnect to the space station. Then they can abort and return to Earth without leaving any of them stranded. Yes, new space suits were flown up for them.
    Reply
  • rradina
    ChrisA said:
    They ALWAYS put all the astronauts onboard when they move the capsules. The reason is if the docking fails and they can't reconnect to the space station. Then they can abort and return to Earth....
    Excellent observation.

    Dragon is stocked with sufficient oxygen, first-aid, battery charge, rations and whatever else necessary to sustain the crew for as long as it takes to execute a weather-permitting splashdown. In space, all known contingencies have a plan B.

    Is there a plan C that launches an emergency Dragon should something go wrong with the crewed-Dragon's thrusters not being able to return to ISS or execute a re-entry maneuver?

    Is a Dragon to Dragon space walk feasible? The mass of moving four humans will probably require periodic thruster execution to keep them together.

    Toward the end of the shuttle program, I recall scuttlebutt around an emergency shuttle launch should damage to the heat shield preclude a safe return. NASA started including a repair kit which might have been the only contingency plan?
    Reply
  • ultimatewizz
    Rob77 said:
    Four astronauts to move Dragon a few metres seems excessive, however understandable if they were doing a test run & fit for the new astronauts. So, did SpaceX send up extra spacesuits for them or are are they able to keep their Starliner flight suits?
    The whole problem with return was that Boeing space suits are not compatible with the dragon capsules.
    Reply