Col. Nick Hague, a Space Force Guardian and NASA astronaut, launched Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as part of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission.

Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

The SpaceX Dragon, selected by NASA to transport astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home, arrived Sunday at the International Space Station.

A SpaceX crew on a rescue mission have arrived at the International Space Station, but it will still be some time before stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can return back to Earth.

After their weeklong journey turned into a monthslong stay on the International Space Station, two Boeing Starliner astronauts are now within reach of the spacecraft that will eventually bring them home.

After multiple delays, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission finally launched two astronauts into space on Saturday from Cape Canaveral.The mission took off at 1:17 p.m. on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station.

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The SpaceX capsule will eventually bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the NASA astronauts who piloted the Boeing Starliner test flight.