September 28, 2024 at 8:09 PM SpaceX launched two new crew members to the International Space Station on Saturday, in a capsule that will eventually bring home two NASA astronauts who flew to orbit on Boeing’s problem-plagued Starliner spacecraft. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday afternoon from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The flight, known as Crew-9, carries NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The duo will join five other astronauts and cosmonauts already onboard the orbiting lab, rounding out the Expedition 72 crew. SpaceX Crew-9 cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut Nick Hague during a welcome ceremony at Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 21 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Hague and Gorbunov are expected to remain at the space station until February. On their return flight back to Earth, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will ride with them. Wilmore and Williams launched to the orbiting outpost on Boeing’s Starliner capsule in early June — the spacecraft’s first crewed test flight. They were initially expected to stay on the ISS for around eight days, but Starliner suffered helium leaks and problems with some of its thrusters.