NASA’s Crew-9 Dragon Spacecraft Relocates to New Port for SpaceX Resupply

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft With Four Expedition 72 Crew Members Aboard
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with four Expedition 72 crew members aboard is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port less than an hour after undocking from Harmony’s forward port. Credit: NASA TV

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts prepared for an upcoming arrival to the International Space Station (ISS) by freeing up docking space.

On Sunday, November 3, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, piloted their Dragon spacecraft from the forward-facing port of the Harmony module to the Zenith port on the ISS. They undocked from the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 6:35 a.m. EST and autonomously redocked with the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 7:25 a.m. EST.

SpaceX Dragon Freedom Spacecraft Above Kansas
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured from a window on the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in a photograph taken by NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flght Engineer Nick Hague. 258 miles below the International Space Station is the Sunflower State of Kansas. Credit: NASA

This maneuver opens space for SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply mission, set to launch on Monday, November 4, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The resupply craft is scheduled to dock at the Harmony module port on Tuesday, November 5.

Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the space station on September 29 to conduct experiments, research demonstrations, and spacewalks. Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore, and Williams, will return to Earth in February 2025.