SpaceX, the non-public firm based by billionaire Elon Musk, has been flying common missions each six months to permit the rotation of ISS crews.
However the launch of Crew-9 was delayed from mid-August to late September to offer NASA consultants extra time to judge the reliability of the Starliner and resolve the way to proceed.
It was then delayed a number of extra days by the harmful passage of Hurricane Helene, a robust storm that roared into the other coast of Florida on Thursday.
SpaceX’s Dragon vessel is ready to dock with the ISS on Sunday round 2130 GMT.
After a interval to permit a handover of duties, the 4 members of Crew-8 will return to Earth on one other SpaceX craft.
In whole, Hague and Gorbunov will spend some 5 months on the ISS; Wilmore and Williams, eight months.
In all, Crew-9 will conduct some 200 scientific experiments.
