Because of faults with Boeing’s Starliner, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore had to wait months for a ride back to Earth on a different spacecraft.

The Starliner saga is a step closer to its end with the launch of a SpaceX vehicle that will relieve the astronauts who flew on the Boeing spacecraft.

Reaching orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the newest crew includes NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots; and Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots. They will spend the next six months at the space station, considered the normal stint, after springing Wilmore and Williams free.