A Space Force guardian has launched into space to help with a NASA mission and bring two stranded astronauts back to Earth.

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.

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.

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.

SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday (October 13). The rocket is heading to the asteroid Psyche, which is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,