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

A SpaceX crew on a rescue mission have arrived at the International Space Station, but it will still be some time before stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams can return back to Earth.

SpaceX +'s mission to rescue stranded astronauts Williams and Wilmore has faced a setback as Falcon 9 suffers an off-nominal deorbit burn.

NASA decided using the Boeing Starliner capsule to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth was too risky following a string of technical glitches on their outwards journey.

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.

When they return from the space station in February, they will bring back the two space veterans – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – whose stay on the ISS was prolonged for months by problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft.

After months of uncertainty, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, travelling in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore,

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov took off inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just after 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Crew-9 capsule docked with the ISS on Sunday at roughly 5:30 p.m. Eastern time and Hague and Gorbunov entered the ISS about 90 minutes later.

SpaceX launched its mission to rescue the two Starliner astronauts — but it didn't go entirely according to plan.

The SpaceX capsule that will bring the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home has docked at the International Space Station.

The SpaceX Capsule on a mission to rescue two astronauts stranded in space has landed at the International Space Station.