NASA, SpaceX launch 9th crew rotation mission to space station

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- NASA and SpaceX launched on Saturday a new crew rotation mission from the U.S. state of Florida to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission, codenamed "Crew-9," carries NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to ISS. It is NASA's ninth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:17 p.m. Eastern Time (1817 GMT) Saturday. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with ISS at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time (2230 GMT) Sunday, according to NASA.

The Crew-9 members will conduct more than 200 science investigations involving blood clotting studies, moisture effects on plants grown in space, and vision changes in astronauts, according to NASA.

The spacecraft is expected to return to Earth next February with the Crew-9 astronauts, as well as NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore who flew to the station in June aboard the malfunctioning Boeing Starliner and have been stranded in space ever since. ■