By Joey RouletteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA and SpaceX on Friday launched a long-awaited crew to the International Space Station that opens the door to bringing home U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams,

SpaceX will launch a crewed NASA mission on Friday to return two astronauts from the International Space Station, after technical issues with Boeing’s spacecraft extended their stay for nine months, leading SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump to suggest they were stranded for “political reasons.

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.