SpaceX to launch a rescue mission for the two astronauts stranded on the ISS
SpaceX is hoping its Falcon 9 rocket will be able to bring back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the International Space Station since June
Two astronauts stuck in space are keeping their fingers crossed that they will be home within days.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June.
After numerous setbacks, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is now set to take off on Friday (March 14) to bring them back down to Earth.
SpaceX will surely be hoping for a more successful flight, after a test earlier this month fell apart in the sky. Similarly, a five foot chunk of what was suspected to be a SpaceX shuttle crashed outside a European city earlier this year.
NASA bosses hope the Crew 10 mission will be able to replace the two stranded astronauts.
Astronaut rescuer Anne McClain said: “We are going to take a little bit of an adventure.
"We’re ready to high-five them, bring them home.”
The new four-strong crew needs to get to the ISS before the stranded pair can return after months in orbit.
If all goes well, they will return next Wednesday, depending on the weather at the “splashdown locations” off the Florida coast.
The capsule set to bring them home is already docked at the station.
The NASA and SpaceX rescue mission had been due to launch from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Thursday.
But it was postponed at the last minute due to “high winds and precipitation”.
The crew is made up of NASA astronauts Ms McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .