The launch of SpaceX to rescue stranded astronauts is delayed until Saturday

teams of Pot And SpaceX Crew-9's launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida (USA) has been postponed until Saturday at 7:17 PM PDT due to the arrival of Tropical Storm Helen.

“Although Tropical Storm Helen is expected to move through the Gulf of Mexico and affect northwest Florida, the storm system is large enough to expect strong winds and heavy rain over the Cape Canaveral and Merritt areas. The island off the east coast of Florida, NASA said.

On Saturday, if all goes as expected, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Korbunov will travel to the ISS aboard the Dragon spacecraft, the ninth crewed orbital mission with SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Crew program. They will conduct investigation and maintenance activities for five months. Until then everything is normal. The mission is one more for SpaceX and NASA, but it's different in that instead of four astronauts aboard, two seats will be empty so that Williams and Wilmore can occupy them when they return in February.

Williams, the new commander of the ISS

Starliner, which flew for the first time on June 5 with two astronauts for a week-long stay at the test station, returned empty on September 8 after encountering problems with the thrusters. Williams and Willmore had to wait for a 'rescue', which would finally be carried out with a ship from Boeing's rival, SpaceX. The decision puts Boeing in a delicate position in the race to make the Starliner a space vehicle with regular flights to the ISS.

Not all unexpected events are unpleasant. Williams became the new commander of the ISS, something she never would have imagined when she was only eight days away. Russian cosmonaut Olag Kononenko was presented with the physical keys to the station's hatch in a “change of command ceremony” that included a change of command of Expedition 71.