NASA has introduced an earlier-than-expected goal date to launch the following astronauts to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS).
The company is now focusing on Feb. 11 for liftoff of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, which can fly 4 astronauts to affix the skeleton crew presently working the orbital lab. A scant three are presently overlaying the upkeep and science investigations aboard the ISS, left behind on Jan. 14 by the early departure of Crew-11 on the station’s first-ever medical evacuation.
Crew-12 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (the mission’s commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot) and mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Fedyaev was a relatively late replacement for cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who was pulled off Crew-12 in early December, possibly for violating U.S. national security regulations.
The quartet will fly the Crew Dragon capsule “Grace” to the ISS for a longer-than-normal assignment, lasting nine months instead of the typical six.
It will be the second spaceflight for Meir and Fedyaev, and Fedyaev’s second long-duration mission. Hathaway and Adenot are both spaceflight rookies headed to orbit for the first time.
The launch window for Crew-12 opens on Feb. 11 at 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT), with liftoff scheduled from Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The Crew-12 astronauts will join NASA’s Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev as a part of ISS Expedition 74, which will eventually transition to Expedition 75 before the end of Crew-12’s rotation.
NASA pegs the Feb. 11 target as the mission’s earliest possible launch date and has designated backup dates in the event of a delay. If Crew-12 doesn’t manage to get off the ground Feb. 11, there are opportunities on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, at 5:38 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. EST (1038 and 1015 GMT), respectively.
