A SpaceX Falcon 9 surged up through blue skies to send a crew on its way to International Space Station where the pair of NASA astronauts who flew up last summer on Boeing’s Starliner have

Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain’s and NASA’s SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.

SpaceX's Crew-10 astronaut mission will arrive at the International Space Station tonight (March 15), and you can watch the action live.

For astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, Friday's launch means they are closing in on their flight back to Earth after an unexpected nine months in orbit.

The replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts launched to the International Space Station on Friday night, paving the way for the pair’s return after nine long months. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams need SpaceX to get this relief team to the space station before they can check out.

SpaceX's Crew-10 mission has successfully launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03PM Eastern on March 14. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are onboard and will join the ISS crew after the spacecraft docks with the orbiting lab at 11:30PM Eastern time on March 15.