When manned crew lifts off for ISS this weekend, public can take part interactively

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- NASA on Thursday invited the public to be virtual guests to view the Crew 9 launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday morning.

The launch, which will take place at Space Complex 40 in Florida, will lift NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov into space in a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Hague will be the flight's commander.

Live coverage will start online at 9:10 a.m. EDT on Saturday with lift off at 1:17 p.m.

The public can register for their virtual attendance and will receive interactive opportunities, updates on the flight and collectible stamps for a virtual guest passport.

The Dragon will have two open seats meant for the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return from the International Space Station later. Their Boeing Starliner arrived at the orbiting laboratory but had experienced technical issues and returned to Earth by itself.

To make room, NASA bumped astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson for a later flight to the space station. It would have been Cardman's first time and Wilson's third.

"I think a lot of the value that we get from sending humans to space is that it is a constant challenge," Cardman said, referencing the challenges with the Starliner. "I think many of the ongoing events inhuman spaceflight are a reminder of how complex and how challenging it is."