SpaceX Crew Dragon Launches Crew-12 Mission to ISS with Four Astronauts
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, Freedom, launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at approximately 5:15 AM ET, aiming for the International Space Station (ISS). The crew of four includes Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
The journey will take 34 hours, with arrival expected on Saturday. This mission replaces Crew-11, which ended early due to a medical evacuation. The Crew-12 astronauts will join three members already on the ISS: Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
They will conduct scientific research, including studies on pneumonia-causing bacteria and plant-microorganism interactions. Crew-12 marks SpaceX's twelfth crewed mission since May 2020.
