SpaceX is ready for its first crewed launch from SLC-40

SpaceX is set and prepared to launch the two-person crew of Crew-9 on their Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS for a six-month stay. This marks two historic firsts for SpaceX and the US space program, SLC-40‘s first human spaceflight and the first Russian to be at the controls of an American spacecraft.

On Tuesday, NASA and SpaceX conducted a dress rehearsal ahead of tomorrow’s launch with NASA Astronaut Nick Hague as commander and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as mission specialist, suited up in their SpaceX flight suits and were strapped into Crew Dragon. The two rehearsed launch day activities before egressing the capsule and returning to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building until launch.

SpaceX then conducted a routine static fire of the rocket to complete its readiness for launch.

What is different from previous SpaceX crewed flights is this will not be taking place at the company’s LC-39A launch pad but over at SLC-40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Until now, all SpaceX human spaceflight missions have taken off from LC-39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This will be the first mission of its kind for the pad.

SpaceX finished modifying the pad to serve as a second Crew Dragon-capable launch site earlier this year. Axiom-3 was hinted at being the first to use the new launch tower and access arm, but launch scheduling ended up placing the mission from NASA’s side.

Not much will be different except for a slightly longer drive from the Armstrong building to SLC-40 with NASA’s security convoy crossing over the border from Kennedy to the Cape.

While this will be SpaceX’s first time launching from station side, NASA recently had its return to station-side operations with Boeing’s Starliner CFT mission launching this summer.

Half the crew, double the fun?

SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission was originally intended to launch NASA astronauts Zena Cardman as commander, Hague as pilot, and Stephanie Wilson as a mission specialist, alongside Gorbunov. However, with NASA’s decision to not return CFT’s crew on Starliner, two seats were needed for their return.

Ars Technica reported in August that NASA’s chief astronaut initially kept Cardman as commander and was politically locked to keeping Gorbunov on as well. However, while Cardman is a well-regarded astronaut, this would have been her first spaceflight and neither she nor Gorbunov have test pilot experience. NASA has never flown a mission to space without a seasoned test pilot or astronaut on board.

So, the decision was made to remove Cardman as commander and place Hague, a former Air Force, now Space Force test pilot, in the commander’s seat for tomorrow’s launch.

Next to him in the pilot seat will be Gorbunov, who needed to receive additional training as his role has been slightly expanded from just a regular mission specialist. Crew-9 will be the first US human spaceflight mission to have a Russian at the flight controls.

On the return, the two spare seats will be filled with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from Starliner CFT; it’s unknown yet if either will take Gorbunov’s place in the pilot seat or not.