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

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.

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.

Eleven hours after successfully launching spacecraft to bring back two astronauts from the International Space Station, SpaceX announced future launches have been halted because of problem with second stage deorbiting.

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 Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Florida on Saturday and is set to bring home two astronauts who've been stuck on the International Space Station for months.

SpaceX on Saturday successfully launched its Crew 9 spacecraft from Space Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Lifted by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, two astronauts left Earth on Saturday afternoon, headed to the International Space Station. Such launches, taking a new complement of crew to the space station every six months or so,