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SpaceX Crew-12 Launch Sends Four Astronauts to the ISS to Restore Full Staffing

The accelerated rotation follows January’s first medical evacuation from the station.

Overview

  • Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 5:15 a.m. ET on Feb. 13 after two weather scrubs, with docking targeted for 3:15 p.m. ET on Feb. 14.
  • The crew comprises NASA’s Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot), ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
  • Their roughly eight- to nine-month mission will resume deferred maintenance and science, including vascular ultrasounds, studies of pneumonia-causing bacteria, and a lunar-landing physiology simulation.
  • The station has run with only three people since mid-January, limiting operations and spacewalks, and the arrival of four newcomers is expected to restore the seven-person complement.
  • Crew-11 returned early for medical reasons; NASA has withheld the patient’s identity but said the astronaut was stable after splashdown, and this flight marks SpaceX’s 12th rotational crew mission under the Commercial Crew Program.