NASA Launches Crew-12 Staff to ISS on SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon Capsule

The understaffed Worldwide Area Station will quickly have 4 new crew members to carry the group measurement again as much as seven, because of the profitable launch of a Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday. The rocket carried a SpaceX Dragon capsule with Crew-12 aboard, and if all goes to plan, the capsule will dock with the station’s Concord module at roughly 3:15 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 14.

NASA needed to return the Crew-11 group dwelling early in January attributable to an ongoing medical challenge with one of many astronauts. Though particulars have been scant on the time, NASA opted to carry the whole crew dwelling, regardless that the problem affected just one astronaut. That left simply three crew members aboard the ISS from a Soyuz launch close to the top of 2025. With the Crew-12 launch, NASA is on observe to restock its house station with a full complement of astronauts.

“With Crew-12 safely on orbit, America and our worldwide companions as soon as once more demonstrated the professionalism, preparation, and teamwork required for human spaceflight,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated in an announcement. “The analysis this crew will conduct aboard the house station advances important applied sciences for deep house exploration whereas delivering actual advantages right here on Earth.”

The Crew-12 group consists of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Area Company astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Throughout their time on the station, they are going to conduct scientific analysis on pneumonia-causing micro organism, on-demand intravenous fluid technology, and the consequences of blood circulation on spaceflight. They’re going to additionally experiment on plant well being monitoring and several other strategies for enhancing meals manufacturing in house.