Houston, TX — NASA has announced a revised crew lineup for the upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). According to a news release today,the mission, now scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday, September 24, will feature NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as the primary crew members. Hague will serve as the mission commander, while Gorbunov will take on the role of mission specialist.
The adjustment in the crew roster follows NASA’s recent decision to bring back the Boeing Starliner as an uncrewed vehicle. NASA has elected to launch the Crew-9 mission with two unoccupied seats to accomodate Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams when the Crew-9 returns next February. As a result, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, who were previously assigned to Crew-9, are now eligible for reassignment on future missions.
Hague and Gorbunov will be flying aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, where they will join Wilmore and Williams as members of the Expedition 72 crew.
NASA’s chief astronaut, Joe Acaba, based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, made the final decision on the crew change. Acaba emphasized the importance of maintaining a balanced crew, ensuring that NASA has an experienced astronaut to command the flight while also integrating a Roscosmos cosmonaut who can operate critical systems aboard the ISS.
“While we’ve had to make crew adjustments in the past for various reasons, downsizing the Crew-9 mission was a particularly difficult decision, especially given the extensive training the crew has undergone as a team of four,” said Acaba. “However, I have complete confidence in Nick and Alex. Zena and Stephanie will continue to support their crewmates leading up to the launch and remain exemplary representatives of what it means to be a professional astronaut.”
Details regarding the future assignments of Cardman and Wilson will be shared by NASA as they become available.
Expressing her support for the mission, Zena Cardman said, “I am deeply proud of our entire crew and have full confidence that Nick and Alex will excel in their roles. We are all committed to the success of this mission, and Stephanie and I look forward to flying when the opportunity arises.”
Stephanie Wilson echoed these sentiments, stating, “I know Nick and Alex will do an outstanding job on the ISS as part of Expedition 72. They are both incredibly capable and dedicated to the mission.”
For Nick Hague, this mission will mark his third launch and second long-duration stay aboard the ISS. Hague has already accumulated 203 days in space during his previous missions. His first launch in October 2018 was marked by a dramatic in-flight abort due to a rocket booster failure, which resulted in a safe ballistic re-entry and landing in the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. Hague successfully returned to space five months later aboard Soyuz MS-12, serving as a flight engineer for Expeditions 59 and 60. During his time on the ISS, he conducted three spacewalks to upgrade the station’s power systems and install a docking adapter for commercial spacecraft. Hague, an active-duty colonel in the U.S. Space Force, also held significant roles within the Department of Defense before resuming his duties at NASA in 2022. Follow Nick Hague on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram at @astrohague.
For Aleksandr Gorbunov, the Crew-9 mission will be his inaugural journey to space. Born in Zheleznogorsk, in the Kursk region of Russia, Gorbunov is an engineer by training, with qualifications in spacecraft and upper stage operations from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, he worked as an engineer for Rocket Space Corporation Energia, where he supported cargo spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Once aboard the ISS, Hague and Gorbunov will join the Expedition 72 crew, which currently includes NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The crew will continue the vital scientific research and maintenance operations that are central to the ISS’s mission, as the station approaches its 24th year of continuous human presence in space.
