NASA and SpaceX have achieved another big win in commercial human spaceflight with the successful launch of the Crew-12 mission. A powerful Falcon 9 blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission comes at an important time. The space station has been running with fewer crew members after Crew-11 returned early in January due to a medical emergency. The four astronauts are heading to space for an eight-month stay packed with research, experiments, and station maintenance work. Their findings could help shape future missions to the Moon and even Mars. A 34-hour journey in orbit Crew Dragon will travel at nearly 17,000 miles per hour and take about 34 hours to reach the ISS. The spacecraft is set to dock automatically with the station’s Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, February 14. Meet the Crew-12 team Leading the mission is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir as spacecraft commander, with Jack Hathaway serving as pilot. They are joined by European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev as mission specialists. Roscosmos is Russia’s state space agency. Once they arrive, the Crew-12 members will join the existing Expedition 74 team aboard the ISS Read also: NASA permits smartphones in space What will Crew-12 do in Space? The eight-month mission will focus on important scientific research. Some key experiments include: These studies are crucial for preparing astronauts for deep-space missions to the Moon and Mars. Read also: First time in six decades, NASA juggles between two missions Life aboard the ISS After docking with the Harmony module’s space-facing port, the crew will be welcomed by Expedition 74 members, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. Later in July, the ISS will also receive a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crew members. Crew-12’s journey marks another major step toward humanity’s future in deep space.
The post appeared first on .
