劲爆大瓜

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� The replacements for NASA鈥檚 launched to the International Space Station on Friday night, paving the way for the pair鈥檚 return after nine long months.

need SpaceX to get this relief team to the space station before they can check out. Arrival is set for late Saturday night.

NASA wants overlap between the two crews so can fill in the newcomers on happenings aboard the orbiting lab. That would put them on course for an undocking next week and a splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting.

The duo will be escorted back by astronauts who flew up on a rescue mission on SpaceX last September reserved for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.

Rocketing toward orbit from NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA鈥檚 Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan鈥檚 Takuya Onishi and Russia鈥檚 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.

As test pilots for , Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5. A series of helium leaks and thruster failures marred their trip to the space station, setting off months of investigation by NASA and Boeing on how best to proceed.

Eventually ruling it unsafe, NASA ordered Starliner to fly back empty last September and moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight due back in February. Their return was further delayed when SpaceX鈥檚 brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs before launching their replacements. To save a few weeks, SpaceX switched to a used capsule, moving up Wilmore and Williams鈥� homecoming to mid-March.

Already capturing the world鈥檚 attention, their unexpectedly long mission took a political twist when President Donald Trump and SpaceX鈥檚 Elon Musk vowed earlier this year to accelerate the astronauts鈥� return and blamed the former administration for stalling it.

Retired Navy captains who have lived at the space station before, Wilmore and Williams have repeatedly stressed that they support the decisions made by their NASA bosses since last summer. The two helped keep the station running 鈥� fixing a broken toilet, watering plants and conducting experiments 鈥� and even went out on a spacewalk together. With nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record for women: the most time spent spacewalking over a career.

A last-minute hydraulics issue delayed Wednesday's initial launch attempt. Concern arose over one of the two clamp arms on the Falcon rocket鈥檚 support structure that needs to tilt away right before liftoff. SpaceX later flushed out the arm's hydraulics system, removing trapped air.

The duo's extended stay has been hardest, they said, on their families 鈥� Wilmore鈥檚 wife and two daughters, and Williams鈥� husband and mother. Besides reuniting with them, Wilmore, a church elder, is looking forward to getting back to face-to-face ministering and Williams can鈥檛 wait to walk her two Labrador retrievers.

鈥淲e appreciate all the love and support from everybody,鈥� Williams said in an interview earlier this week. 鈥淭his mission has brought a little attention. There鈥檚 goods and bads to that. But I think the good part is more and more people have been interested in what we鈥檙e doing鈥� with space exploration.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press