Four astronauts will soon launch to the space station — a flight that will kick off a series of events culminating in the long-awaited return of NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

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.

SpaceX successfully launched four people into space on Friday, beginning a mission that will give the International Space Station enough crew members to