The spacecraft lifted off with two crew members and two empty seats, so that the NASA astronauts who rode Boeing's Starliner to orbit will be able to join for the ride home.

The spacecraft lifted off with two crew members and two empty seats, so that the NASA astronauts who rode Boeing’s Starliner to orbit will be able to join for the ride home.

SpaceX launched two new crew members to the International Space Station on Saturday, in a capsule that will eventually bring home two NASA astronauts who flew to orbit on Boeing’s problem-plagued Starliner spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday afternoon from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The flight, known as Crew-9, carries NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

The duo will join five other astronauts and cosmonauts already onboard the orbiting lab, rounding out the Expedition 72 crew.