A routine crew rotation at the International Space Station has taken on unusual significance: It paves the way for a pair of astronauts stranded for more than nine months to finally come home. The NASA-SpaceX Crew-10 mission is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:48 PM (2348 GMT) on Wednesday. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries a Crew Dragon capsule with a four-member team on a scientific expedition to the orbital lab. All eyes however will be on astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who have been stuck aboard the ISS since June after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft developed propulsion issues and was deemed unfit for their return. The pair, initially slated for an eight-day mission, were reassigned to Crew-9 after its astronauts arrived in September aboard a SpaceX Dragon. The spacecraft carried only two crew members instead of the usual four to make room for Wilmore and Williams. Crew-9 will remain in orbit until Crew-10 arrives. “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short,” Wilmore said in a recent news conference. “That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies.” Crew-10 is expected to dock early Thursday, followed by a brief handover before Crew-9 departs on March 16 for an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting. Along with Wilmore and Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also be aboard the returning Dragon capsule. Wilmore and Williams’s prolonged stay has recently become a political flashpoint, as President Donald Trump and his close advisor Elon Musk have accused ex-president Joe Biden’s administration of abandoning the pair. SpaceX boss Musk has suggested, without providing specifics, that he had offered Biden a “rescue” mission outside of the routine crew rotations.