NASA removed two astronauts from its Crew-9 mission to allow for Williams and Wilmore to join the cohort, and return onboard the SpaceX Dragon − which carries four people at a time. The altered Crew-9 − only Hague and Gorbunov − launched aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom in late September.

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites into orbit, a little more than 12 hours after the private company teamed up with NASA to send four astronauts to the International Space Station -- also from Florida.

After month of technical difficulties which has led to being stuck in space for nearly nine months, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are about to return home