A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of four aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifts off on a mission to the International Space Station lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raoux)2025-03-14T23:05:21Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) The replacements for NASAs two stuck astronauts launched to the International Space Station on Friday night, paving the way for the pairs return after nine long months.Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams need SpaceX to get this relief team to the space station before they can check out. Arrival is set for late Saturday night. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off on a mission to the International Space Station from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Renna) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off on a mission to the International Space Station from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Renna) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More NASA wants overlap between the two crews so Wilmore and Williams can fill in the newcomers on happenings aboard the orbiting lab. That would put them on course for an undocking next week and a splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting.The duo will be escorted back by astronauts who flew up on a rescue mission on SpaceX last September alongside two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.Reaching orbit from NASAs Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASAs Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japans Takuya Onishi and Russias Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint, after springing Wilmore and Williams free. Crew10 members, from left, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, astronaut Nichole Ayers, astronaut Anne McClain and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Crew10 members, from left, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, astronaut Nichole Ayers, astronaut Anne McClain and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher, McClain said minutes into the flight. As test pilots for Boeings new Starliner capsule, Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5. A series of helium leaks and thruster failures marred their trip to the space station, setting off months of investigation by NASA and Boeing on how best to proceed. Eventually ruling it unsafe, NASA ordered Starliner to fly back empty last September and moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight due back in February. Their return was further delayed when SpaceXs brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs before launching their replacements. To save a few weeks, SpaceX switched to a used capsule, moving up Wilmore and Williams homecoming to mid-March. Already capturing the worlds attention, their unexpectedly long mission took a political twist when President Donald Trump and SpaceXs Elon Musk vowed earlier this year to accelerate the astronauts return and blamed the former administration for stalling it.Retired Navy captains who have lived at the space station before, Wilmore and Williams have repeatedly stressed that they support the decisions made by their NASA bosses since last summer. The two helped keep the station running fixing a broken toilet, watering plants and conducting experiments and even went out on a spacewalk together. With nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record for women: the most time spent spacewalking over a career.A last-minute hydraulics issue delayed Wednesdays initial launch attempt. Concern arose over one of the two clamp arms on the Falcon rockets support structure that needs to tilt away right before liftoff. SpaceX later flushed out the arms hydraulics system, removing trapped air.The duos extended stay has been hardest, they said, on their families Wilmores wife and two daughters, and Williams husband and mother. Besides reuniting with them, Wilmore, a church elder, is looking forward to getting back to face-to-face ministering and Williams cant wait to walk her two Labrador retrievers.We appreciate all the love and support from everybody, Williams said in an interview earlier this week. This mission has brought a little attention. Theres goods and bads to that. But I think the good part is more and more people have been interested in what were doing with space exploration. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.