STORY: Two U.S. astronauts who have been stuck in space for nine months will have to wait at least a few days longer to return home…

…after SpaceX on Wednesday scrubbed the launch of a rocket carrying a crew that was meant to replace them, called the Crew-10.

NASA was set to launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida to relieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station.

But the agency said the launch was called off due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm for the rocket.

The astronaut pair has been stuck on the ISS for the past nine months after NASA deemed that it was too risky for them to fly home on the Boeing Starliner craft they arrived on,

which suffered propulsion system issues in space.

NASA says Wilmore and Williams cannot leave until the new crew arrives in order to keep the ISS staffed with enough U.S. astronauts for maintenance.

The Crew-10 flight would normally be considered a routine astronaut rotation.

Instead, it has become politicized as

U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have, without evidence, blamed former President Joe Biden for the fiasco.

NASA had moved the mission up two weeks earlier than planned under pressure from Trump and Musk, the CEO of SpaceX.

NASA swapped a delayed SpaceX capsule with a different one that would be ready sooner.

The agency now says that the next potential launch opportunity is no earlier than Friday evening,

which would put Williams and Wilmore on track for a March 19 departure from the space station.