Col. Nick Hague, a Space Force Guardian and NASA astronaut, launched Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as part of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission.

A Space Force guardian has launched into space to help with a NASA mission and bring two stranded astronauts back to Earth.

Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.

SpaceX launched a two-person crew to the International Space Station, the start of a mission to bring home two NASA astronauts stuck in orbit after flying on Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft.

Normally, routine trips taking astronauts to and from the ISS under Nasa’s Commercial Crew Program would be at full capacity – but the outbound leg of this mission is only car