Col. Nick Hague, a Space Force Guardian and NASA astronaut, launched Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as part of the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission.

A Space Force guardian has launched into space to help with a NASA mission and bring two stranded astronauts back to Earth.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.

A SpaceX capsule has docked at the International Space Station to bring back two stranded astronauts next year.

Two astronauts were launched on a five-month mission that also hopes to rescue two NASA astronauts left behind on the ISS. The four are expected to return to Earth in February.

Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.

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SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday (October 13). The rocket is heading to the asteroid Psyche, which is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,