Image: NASA
SpaceX Crew-9
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 2024-09-28 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida |
| Launch vehicle | Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1085.2) |
| Spacecraft | Crew Dragon Freedom (C212) |
| Target | Low Earth Orbit |
| Type | Crewed |
| End date | 2025-03-18 |
| Recovery | MV Megan, Gulf of Mexico off Tallahassee, Florida |
| Duration | 171 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes |
| Partners | NASA, SpaceX, Roscosmos |
Overview
Crew-9 launched unlike any rotation before it: with two astronauts and two empty seats. After NASA decided in August 2024 that Boeing's troubled Starliner would return uncrewed, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were pulled from the manifest so Dragon Freedom could bring home Starliner crew Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Commander Nick Hague — the first active-duty U.S. Space Force Guardian to launch to orbit — and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov lifted off on 28 September 2024 on the first crewed launch ever conducted from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40, carrying custom seat liners and suits for the homebound pair. Docking the following day, Hague and Gorbunov folded into Expedition 72; on 3 November the crew relocated Freedom from Harmony's forward to zenith port, and on 16 January 2025 Hague and Williams conducted a spacewalk to service station hardware. The mission's defining act came in March 2025: days after Crew-10's arrival, Freedom undocked on 18 March with all four aboard and splashed down off Tallahassee that evening — greeted by a pod of dolphins circling the capsule — closing Wilmore and Williams' unplanned 286-day odyssey and a 171-day flight for Crew-9 itself.
Crew
Nick Hague
Commander
NASA; first active-duty U.S. Space Force Guardian to launch into orbit
Aleksandr Gorbunov
Mission Specialist
Roscosmos; first spaceflight, flying under the NASA–Roscosmos seat-exchange agreement
Barry 'Butch' Wilmore
Return crew member
NASA; launched on Boeing Starliner CFT in June 2024, returned aboard Crew-9 after 286 days in space
Sunita Williams
Return crew member
NASA; launched on Boeing Starliner CFT in June 2024, returned aboard Crew-9 after 286 days; commanded Expedition 72
Key Milestones
2024-09-28
Liftoff at 17:17 UTC — the first crewed launch from Cape Canaveral's SLC-40, with two seats deliberately empty
2024-09-29
Dragon Freedom docked with the ISS; Hague and Gorbunov joined Expedition 72
2024-11-03
Crew relocated Freedom from Harmony forward to Harmony zenith
2025-01-16
Hague and Sunita Williams performed a spacewalk to service station hardware
2025-03-16
Crew-10's arrival completed the handover, clearing Crew-9 to depart
2025-03-18
Undocked and splashed down off Tallahassee with Wilmore and Williams aboard, ending their 286-day flight
Key Achievements
First crewed launch from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40
Reconfigured within weeks from a four-seat rotation into a two-seat rescue flight for the Starliner CFT crew
Returned Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita Williams to Earth after their unplanned 286-day mission
Nick Hague became the first active-duty U.S. Space Force Guardian in orbit
Legacy & Significance
Crew-9 is remembered as the flight that closed the Starliner saga's most fraught chapter. NASA's decision to fly Dragon Freedom half-empty — and SpaceX's ability to integrate new seat liners, suits and a revised manifest in weeks — became the textbook demonstration of why the agency insisted on two dissimilar commercial crew providers. The mission turned a potential crisis into a managed extension, made Wilmore and Williams' homecoming a global media event, and proved the rotation architecture could double as a rescue capability without a dedicated vehicle ever being launched.
