The crew of SpaceX Crew-9 knew that spaceflight was not assured, even before NASA pulled two of their members.

Crew-9, the ninth operational astronaut launch to the International Space Station (ISS), is scheduled to launch on September 28 by SpaceX and will serve a six-month mission there. However, they will only be carrying two people on board; the other two must be held in reserve for the two NASA astronauts who are presently stationed on the International Space Station (ISS) and who were unable to utilize Boeing's Starliner spaceship to come home on time.

Currently serving on Crew 9 are commander Nick Hague from NASA and the U.S. Space Force, and specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov from the Roskosmos project. Two other NASA astronauts, veteran of three space shuttle missions, Stephanie Wilson and rookie Zena Cardman, were also expected to be on Crew-9, but they will have to wait for another mission.

The August personnel reorganization resulted from months of collaborative NASA and Boeing review of the troublesome Starliner spacecraft, which had propulsion system issues upon docking with the International Space Station on June 6. Following a safe arrival, the Starliner crew was given new duties on the International Space Station (ISS), and their initial 10-day mission was extended to allow for weeks of in-orbit and ground testing. After determining that there was too much risk to bring the crew back to Starliner, NASA ultimately decided to return the spacecraft on September 6th, but without the crew.

As a result, two Starliner astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, had to be moved to a separate spacecraft. Currently, an emergency escape path that utilizes the already docked SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft serves the four members of Crew-8. As a result, the Starliner crew would have additional temporary seats in the cargo compartment. During launch, SpaceX's Crew-9 will have mass simulators fitted in the two empty seats to keep the spacecraft's center of gravity from shifting. Williams and Wilmore will travel alongside Hague and Gorbunov, the members of Crew-9 that launched, after their expected return home in February 2025.