Stuck NASA astronauts one step closer to home after SpaceX crew-swap launch

NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station that opens the door to bringing home US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the orbital lab for nine months.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 pm ET (2303 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying four astronauts who will replace Wilmore and Williams, both of whom are veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots and were the first to fly Boeing's faulty Starliner capsule to the ISS in June.

Otherwise a routine crew rotation flight, Friday's Crew-10 mission is a long-awaited first step to bring the astronaut duo back to Earth - part of a plan set by NASA last year that more recently has been given greater urgency by President Donald Trump.

The Crew-10 launch occurred as Wilmore and Williams were asleep in their daily schedule on the station, Dina Contellam deputy manager of NASA's ISS programme, told reporters after the launch.

After the Crew-10 astronauts' ISS arrival on Saturday at 11:30 pm ET, Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to depart on Wednesday as early as 4 am ET (0800 GMT), along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.

The Crew-10 crew, which will stay on the station for roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.