A week-long mission to space that turned into an unexpected nine-month trip was extended a few days longer but hopefully, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be back on Earth soon.

There were issues with what The Associated Press called a “critical hydraulic system” that happened less than four hours before the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon rocket launch on Wednesday.

The system controls the arms that link the rocket to the launch support structure that has to tilt before the spacecraft can blast off.

The decision to abort the launch came less than an hour before the rocket would have soared into the sky and with the four astronauts already strapped into their positions.

The soonest that the launch will happen will be Friday evening.

The weather would not allow the launch of Crew-10 on Thursday. Also, engineers needed more time to look at the data and see if repairs were needed.

Once the Falcon takes off, it will take about a day to get to and dock with the International Space Station.

Crew-10 will take two days to get up to speed with Crew-9, then Crew -9 along with Williams and Wilmore will board the rocket and return home. Typically it is a five- or more-day turnaround but it was shortened to keep the ISS’ food reserves in check.

Williams and Wilmore were on board the Boeing Starliner spacecraft in June. It was the craft’s first manned mission and after reaching the ISS, had problems with its thrusters and helium leaks. After weeks of troubleshooting the Starliner returned to Earth without its passengers who left on the station.

NASA decided to use SpaceX to bring them home but there were logistics issues such as crew rotation that had to happen. So Williams and Wilmore were on the space station for about 288 days depending on when they move over to the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to come home.

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