[NYPOST] SpaceX successfully launched Crew Dragon 10 to the International Space Station Friday night on a mission that will return NASA's two stranded astronauts back to Earth after nine long months in orbit. The Crew-10 mission lifted off just after 7 p.m. in a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is expected to arrive at the ISS late Saturday night to relieve astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who could splashdown in the Sunshine State as early as Wednesday.
The pair of star gazers have been stuck at the ISS since their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered several leaks and mechanical issues during their weeklong mission last June.
Williams and Wilmore will head back to Earth on one of the docketed SpaceX capsules with fellow American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived in space in September.
The trip would end the nine-month-long saga the two astronauts have endured after their initially planned 10 days on the ISS was extended indefinitely due to the Boeing malfunction, which cratered the company's reputation last year.