BREAKING: Elon Musk launches SpaceX rescue mission to bring stranded astronauts home [VIDEO]

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From USA Today: The Starliner saga is one step closer to its end with the launch Friday night of a SpaceX vehicle that will relieve the astronauts who months ago flew to orbit aboard the now-infamous Boeing spacecraft.

A mission known as Crew-10 is on its way to the International Space Station, where for the past 10 months NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have unexpectedly found themselves stationed for an extended stay. Wilmore and Williams, of course, were catapulted into the public eye back in June when the Starliner vehicle they piloted to the space station encountered a series of issues that ended with the spacecraft leaving them behind.

Instead of returning to Earth on the Starliner as planned, Wilmore and Williams joined Expedition 72 at the space station and were folded into the Crew-9 mission that arrived in September with two astronauts instead of four.

After the mission was delayed two days ago, the Crew-10 mission is finally on its way, lifting off at 7:04 pm ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

More from USA Today:

The crew, under the command of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, also includes NASA pilot Nichole Ayers and two mission specialists from other space agencies: Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A. Once in orbit, the astronauts aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule then separated from the rocket to continue onto the space station.

WATCH THE STUNNING LIFT-OFF BELOW:

STEP 2: Falcon 9 first stage separation and flip maneuver

STEP 3: Falcon 9’s first stage booster has landed at Landing Zone 1

STEP 4: Dragon has separated from Falcon 9’s second stage

Internal cameras show the crew in orbit:

WHAT’S NEXT?   USA Today explains:

The astronauts of Crew-10 are expected to reach the space station Saturday night and dock by about 11:30 p.m. EST at the Harmony module, a port and passageway onto the ISS.

The hatch would then be opened shortly after, allowing for the new arrivals to officially greet the Expedition 72 crew members, including the astronauts who flew aboard the Starliner more than 280 days ago.

Below is the live-streaming video of the launch:

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