NASA, SpaceX Launch Crew-12 Mission with Four Astronauts to ISS

NASA and SpaceX announced Crew-12 mission, which set to launch 4 astronauts to the International Space Station.

A four-person crew, including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot), ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, will fly onboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. 

At 5:15 a.m. ET, the mission will take out from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40. "Freedom," the Crew Dragon spacecraft operated by Crew-12, is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. Crew-12 will be SpaceX's thirteenth crewed mission under NASA's Commercial Crew Program and its twelfth crew rotational journey to the space station.

With a 90% probability of favorable weather at launch time, weather forecasters provided an improved view for the launch site circumstances. Throughout the countdown, they will also be keeping an eye on the weather along Crew-12's flight route, particularly the possibility of high wind speeds. Forecasters and mission managers decided to proceed into the Crew-12 launch countdown after receiving thorough weather briefings on Thursday morning.

Both Adenot and Hathaway are new to spaceflight. Meir and Fedyaev will both be on their second spaceflight with Crew-12. About three months longer than the typical crew rotation, the four astronauts will spend roughly nine months on board the ISS (International Space Station).

With the arrival of Crew-12, the ISS will have seven crew members again. Since SpaceX's Crew-11 mission returned to Earth in mid-January, the orbiting lab has been manned by a skeleton crew of three: NASA's Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.