SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year. The capsule rocketed toward orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns.

NASA's Crew-9, carrying an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, lifted off into clouds at 1:17 p.m. EDT in the SpaceX Dragon Freedom from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 on their way to a five-month mission at the International Space Station.