The crew-swap mission will enable NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to Earth from the International Space Station.

A SpaceX capsule carrying a fresh crew to the space station launched Friday, setting the stage for the Starliner astronauts to finally come home.

Reaching orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s 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.