Rapidly approaching Tropical Storm Helene has caused NASA and Space X to delay the launch of one of its upcoming astronaut missions in Central Florida. The Crew-9 mission was expected to launch Thursday afternoon from Cape Canaveral, ahead of the predicted landfall of what is forecast to be Hurricane Helene along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

SpaceX's upcoming Crew Dragon mission, a routine flight called Crew-9, is expected to send three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station. Although Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the northwest of region of Florida,

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson returned to Earth after a six-month mission aboard the ISS, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Dyson participated in cutting-edge scientific research,