NASA’s beleaguered mission to rescue two stranded astronauts has finally launched, setting the stage for a happy ending to the nine-month-long saga.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off Friday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, on a mission to deliver four new astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The new team is scheduled to arrive at the station on late on Saturday. Once there, astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will finally be able to return to Earth at some point on or shortly after March 19.
The pair have been stranded in orbit since June 5, with SpaceX owner Elon Musk and many others claiming Williams and Wilmore were left on the ISS for political reasons.
The duo were initially scheduled for an eight day mission.
Musk said he offered to bring the astronauts home eight months ago, but the Biden Administration shot it down because it would’ve made Donald Trump ‘look good’ in the presidential race against former vice president Kamala Harris.