Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams have spent nine months aboard the International Space Station following the failure of Boeing’s Starliner mission. Their rescue rocket has finally been launched.

NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday night from Florida.

An eight-day mission has turned into a nine-month space stint for two NASA astronauts who are finally set to come home. But why have they been away for so long - and what are the effects of such a lengthy stay in space?

Four astronauts will soon launch to the space station — a flight that will kick off a series of events culminating in the long-awaited return of NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The Nasa-SpaceX mission to replace US astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams with a new crew at the International Space Station (ISS) was delayed due to a launch pad issue. The duo, which went to space last June,

NASA will wait at least another two days to launch its next space station crew, delaying the return of Starliner astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams a bit longer.

In a news briefing following the landing, Nasa spokesperson Steve Stich said: "From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there's a piece of us - all of us - that wish it would have been the way we had planned it.

The delayed mission means the two astronauts who've been "stuck" in space can't leave until March 19 at the earliest.