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.

NASA decided using the Boeing Starliner capsule to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth was too risky following a string of technical glitches on their outwards journey.

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, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.

Two astronauts were launched on a five-month mission that also hopes to rescue two NASA astronauts left behind on the ISS. The four are expected to return to Earth in February.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov boarded the ISS shortly after the Dragon capsule docked at the station at 2130 GMT, NASA said in a post on X. The SpaceX Crew-9 mission was supposed to transport four astronauts to the ISS until two empty seats had to be opened up for Wilmore and Williams after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on in June was deemed unfit to return them to Earth.

A SpaceX rocket lifted off with two passengers on Saturday to retrieve two American astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for months, according to NASA. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral,

The craft will return Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams - stranded since June - to Earth.

Space X has launched its mission to bring back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June. The Dragon capsule, which has two empty seats for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams,

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth after an extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS).