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.

A SpaceX crew set to bring home two stranded astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 29.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule, which is due to bring home stuck astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams next year, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, according to NASA and SpaceX.

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.

The Dragon capsule has two empty seats for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were only meant to be on the ISS for eight days, but were forced to remain there because of a fault discovered during the flight.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with two seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return to Earth in 2025.

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.