The SpaceX Crew-9 mission is expected to depart for the International Space Station this weekend for a trip that will eventually bring home two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were left stranded in space by Boeing’s Starliner.

The SpaceX mission, which originally was slated with a four-member crew, was reduced to only two members to make room for the return trip with Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams — who have been marooned at the space station since early June after their trip to space on Boeing’s Starliner experienced thruster issues and helium leaks. Fearing for the pair’s safety, NASA decided to return the Starliner to Earth without a crew — it had a successful landing earlier this month — leaving Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams at the space station to await the SpaceX capsule.

“NASA and SpaceX teams now targeting no earlier than 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, for the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission,” NASA announced on Tuesday, pushing the launch back due to weather concerns from Hurricane Helene.

A NASA astronaut, Nick Hague, and a Russian cosmonaut, Aleksandr Gorbunov, will make up the mission and are scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Once at the space station, the pair will spend around “five months at the station conducting more than 200 science and research demonstrations,” NASA said.

Upon completing that work, the spacecraft will return in February 2025 with Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams aboard — finally bringing them back after the pair has unexpectedly missed family events and special occasions back home. Mr. Wilmore, a devout Christian and church elder at Providence Baptist Church, is missing most of his daughter’s senior year of high school, and Ms. Williams has expressed that she was “nervous” at first about missing out on family plans. 

When asked in a recent news conference how they felt about their original ride — the Boeing Starliner — going home without them, Mr. Wilmore acknowledged that there “were some tough times,” but the pair overall expressed that they were handling the transition well and said they don’t “fret” over things that are outside of their control. Ms. Williams also said space is her “happy place” and that she loved being at the station. 

In a sign of just how much has changed since the pair embarked on what was supposed to be an eight-day trip, Ms. Williams became the Commander of the Space Station on Sunday, when a Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Kononenko, handed over station command to her before departing. Ms. Williams credited the members of Expedition 71 — a crew that was already aboard the space station and worked with Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams after their stay was extended.

“This Expedition 71 has taught all of us about flexibility, the ability to adapt to a number of amazing things. A lot of things weren’t planned and somehow you guys put it all together and did it,” she said as she received a symbolic space station key. “You adopted Butch and I, even though that was not quite the plan, but here we are as part of the family.” 

Boeing, when reached by the Sun, declined to comment on the upcoming launch. The Sun reached out to SpaceX for comment.