The upcoming SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station will see the U.S. Space Force hit some important milestones.
When the mission launches, NASA astronaut, U.S. Space Force colonel and Crew-9 pilot Nick Hague will become the first active U.S. Space Force Ranger to fly into space. Another astronaut before him, NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, was sworn in in 2020 while already aboard the International Space Station as commander of SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission and a U.S. Air Force colonel.
But Haag’s launch as an active sentinel isn’t the only thing special about his launch. As it turns out, given launch pad availability, when Haag and the rest of the Crew-9 astronauts lift off no later than Sept. 24, they won’t be launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC 40) at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Station. That means the Space Force won’t just be launching one of its own for the first time ever, it’ll be doing so from its own launch complex.
Today, most astronaut launches take place from Kennedy Space Center. In fact, only one crewed flight has been launched from Cape Canaveral since 1968: Boeing’s Starliner crewed test flight, scheduled to launch on June 5, 2024.
Prior to that, the last astronaut launch from Cape Canaveral (then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station) was Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968, the first manned flight of NASA’s Apollo program.
The station also hosted the first spaceflight by an American astronaut when Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission launched from the now-defunct Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, launched from Cape Canaveral on the Mercury Atlas 6 mission in 1962. At the time of both launches, the base was known as the Cape Canaveral Rocket Test Annex.
When Hague launches to the International Space Station on September 24 with his crewmates from what is now Cape Canaveral Space Station, he will not only be following in the footsteps of pioneering astronauts, he will also be making history on behalf of the newest branch of the U.S. military.
This will be only the second time astronauts have launched from a Space Force facility, and the first time the service has sent an active sentinel into space from any facility. It will also be the first-ever crewed launch from SLC 40, and the first SpaceX mission to land in the Pacific Ocean upon completion.
Haag has been tasked with two space flights before, but only one of them has successfully reached space.
In October 2018, the Hague spacecraft and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin launched on a Soyuz rocket destined for the International Space Station. But the rocket malfunctioned two minutes after launch, forcing it to be abort using the spacecraft’s emergency escape system.
Six months later, on March 14, 2019, Hague successfully launched to the International Space Station with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, where Hague was scheduled to perform three separate spacewalks.
Now, on the cusp of his third flight, Hague says he feels honored to have the opportunity to go into orbit again not just as a NASA astronaut, but as a member of the Space Force.
“It’s an honor to be able to represent all of these guardians around the world who do all of the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes human spaceflight possible, whether it’s launching us into space or protecting us while we’re up there, by watching the sky and making sure things don’t hit us,” Haag told Space.com in a July 2024 interview.
“There are so many things that they do every day that make that possible. And so, to represent them and to be part of the astronaut corps as a member of the Space Force — where the other services have active astronauts as well — so this is really just another step that the service is taking in terms of establishing itself as a service.”
Haag said he met personally with the two most senior members of the Space Force: Gen. Chance Saltzman, the chief of space operations, and Gen. Michael Gotlin, the deputy chief of space operations, who gave Haag “full support” to help highlight “how important what we’re doing up there” as part of NASA’s Crew 9 mission.
In the interview, Haag was quick to point out that while he is part of the Astronaut Corps, he does not actively work on Space Force missions. “So just because I’m in the Space Force doesn’t mean I have Space Force projects that I do there. I work for NASA, and I do civilian space missions.”
After launch and docking, Crew-9 will spend about six months aboard the International Space Station, during which time the crew will conduct a variety of scientific research. The mission’s originally scheduled launch date of August 18 has been pushed back to September due to ongoing issues with Boeing’s stranded Starliner spacecraft, which is currently docked at the ISS while NASA considers options for returning its crew.
