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 their weeklong journey turned into a monthslong stay on the International Space Station, two Boeing Starliner astronauts will soon be united with the spacecraft that will eventually bring them home.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule arrived safely at the International Space Station on Sunday, where it will eventually ferry back to Earth the two Boeing Strainer astronauts who have been stuck in space for months.

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.

The SpaceX spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov lifted off to the International Space Station on Saturday. The mission will rescue two

Two astronauts — one American, one Russian — are headed to the International Space Station with two empty seats for crewmates who are already in orbit.

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,