SpaceX Launches Crew-12 Mission, Takes Four Astronauts to ISS

SpaceX's rocket successfully launched into orbit from Florida on Friday morning, February 13, carrying four international crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight-month science mission in a micro-gravity environment.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Crew Dragon capsule named "Freedom", launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 05:15 EST (10:15 GMT). The rocket traveled for 34 hours before it was scheduled to dock with the ISS, which orbits about 420 km above Earth.

The mission, called Crew-12, was manned by:

Jessica Meir (48): Veteran NASA astronaut and marine biologist, acting as mission commander. This is her second trip to the ISS.

Jack Hathaway (43): NASA astronaut and former U.S. Navy fighter pilot.

Sophie Adenot (43): Astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) and helicopter pilot from France.

Andrey Fedyaev: Russian cosmonaut and former military pilot.

Upon arrival at the ISS, the team will conduct various scientific, medical, and technical studies. The focus of the study includes bacteria that cause pneumonia to improve treatment on Earth, as well as experiments on the interaction of plants and nitrogen-fixing microbes to increase food production in space.

Most of these science agendas aim to refine technologies that NASA hopes to use in future astronaut missions to the moon and Mars as part of the Artemis program.

This is the 12th long-term mission flown by NASA using a SpaceX launch vehicle since Elon Musk's private company began sending US astronauts into orbit in May 2020.

Crew-12 will join the three current ISS residents: NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. Previously, four members of the Crew-11 mission had to return home early in mid-January due to serious medical conditions experienced by one of the crew.

NASA reaffirmed its commitment to operating the ISS until the end of 2030.