SpaceX launched a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday night, setting the stage for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return home after an unexpected nine-month stay. The replacement team—NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov—lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, with arrival slated for late Saturday. Their mission: relieve Wilmore and Williams, who have been aboard since June.

The duo, test pilots for Boeing’s Starliner, launched on June 5 expecting a brief mission. But helium leaks and thruster issues with Starliner forced NASA to deem it unsafe for their return, sending it back empty in September. SpaceX stepped in, initially scheduling their homecoming for February via the Crew-9 mission.

Delays with a new SpaceX capsule’s batteries pushed that to late March, but a switch to a used capsule accelerated the timeline to mid-March. The new crew’s arrival allows a handover period, with Wilmore and Williams set to depart next week, weather permitting, alongside two Crew-9 astronauts who arrived in September with spare seats.

“Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher,” McClain said shortly after launch. The replacements, all former pilots, will stay six months. Wilmore and Williams, seasoned astronauts, kept the ISS operational—fixing equipment, tending plants, and completing a spacewalk together—while shrugging off political claims from President Trump and Elon Musk about their delay. Williams, now holding the women’s record for career spacewalking time, and Wilmore eagerly await reuniting with family and pets.