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SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission spacecraft launched on Saturday, September 28, 2024 at 1:17 pm EDT  for a rescue mission with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, left, and NASA astronaut Nick Hague. The launch occurred two days after Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida's west coast on September 26, 2024. The mission is scheduled to rescue back to earth stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts Suni William and Butch Wilmore, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in February or March 2025. The mission was initially planned to transport four crew members—NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—to the International Space Station (ISS), but instead Crew-9 launched with two open seats to return the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts to Earth. NASA decided the Boeing Starliner was unsafe to return with astronauts because of malfunctions of thrusters that couldn't be replicated. The uncrewed Boeing Starliner