NASA pushes back Crew-9 mission launch to Saturday (Sept. 24)

(Corrects paragraph 2 of Sept. 24 story to say the Crew Dragon mission is expected to send one NASA astronaut, not three NASA astronauts)

(Reuters) -NASA said on Tuesday the launch of its Crew-9 mission with SpaceX has been pushed back to Sept. 28 due to Tropical Storm Helene.

SpaceX’s upcoming Crew Dragon mission, a routine flight called Crew-9, is expected to send one NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station.

Although Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the northwest of region of Florida, it is large enough that high winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral region, from where the mission is set to be launched.

The Crew-9 mission was originally stated to be launched no earlier than Aug. 18, but was pushed back a month to spend more time analyzing issues with Boeing (NYSE:)’s Starliner spacecraft, which remains docked at the station.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are to launch aboard the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, on what will be the ninth crew rotation mission with SpaceX under the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program.