A SpaceX rocket has finally launched in a bid to bring two stranded NASA astronauts back to earth after nine months in space.

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.

The two astronauts who crewed the Boeing Starliner greeted their replacements, who docked at the International Space Station.