NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station that will let them bring home US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital lab for nine months.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET (2303 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts who will replace Wilmore and Williams, both of whom are veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots and were the first to fly Boeing's BA.N Starliner capsule to the ISS in June.
But problems with Starliner's propulsion system during the flight forced an extension of their planned eight-day stay as NASA deemed it too risky for them to fly home on the craft, which returned to Earth empty in September.
Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday's Crew-10 mission is also a long-awaited key step to bring the astronaut duo back to Earth. They are scheduled to depart the station on March 19 after the Crew-10 astronauts arrive Saturday night.
The mission has become entangled in politics as President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX's CEO, say without evidence that former President Joe Biden left the astronauts on the station for political reasons.