The Space Coast saw its first human spaceflight of 2026 in the early hours of February 13, as NASA and SpaceX sent four astronauts rocketing toward the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight-month stay. The Crew-12 mission—delayed from earlier in the week due to poor weather—lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX’s pad at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, marking a shift away from NASA’s historic Pad 39A as SpaceX pursues new Starship infrastructure.
Commanded by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, with pilot Jack Hathaway also of NASA, the international crew includes European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot from France and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The team is set to dock with the ISS on Saturday, February 14 at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT), with live coverage beginning two hours earlier. After a smooth launch and successful separation of the Dragon “Freedom” capsule from its Falcon 9 booster, the astronauts are now settling in for their roughly 34-hour journey to their new orbital home.
Taking Over After an Emergency
This new crew’s arrival comes after a medical emergency in January forced the early evacuation of the previous ISS team. NASA has not disclosed which astronaut was affected or the nature of the emergency, but Crew-12 will step in to keep the station fully staffed. “We know [Earth] is utterly unique, fragile and must be protected,” Meir said before launch. “Crew-12 is grateful and ready for the journey ahead.”
The launch was a quieter affair than some past missions, with only a handful of people lining the road near Kennedy Space Center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building as police-escorted Teslas ferried the astronauts to the pad. After suiting up in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, the crew climbed into Dragon at 2:39 a.m., completing leak checks and communications tests before hatch closure just after 3 a.m.
A New Era for Dragon Launches
This mission also marks a logistical shift—SpaceX has announced plans to move all future Crew Dragon flights to Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 while it builds a new Starship and Super Heavy launch tower at 39A. Despite the change, the launch went off without a hitch, with Mission Control sending the crew off with a rousing, “Go Dragon, go Falcon and God speed Crew-12,” as Falcon 9 roared through the clouds.
Once at the ISS, the astronauts will trade their SpaceX launch suits for more comfortable attire and settle in for their nine-month mission—providing critical research and station maintenance until the next team’s arrival. The Crew-12 mission underscores the ongoing international cooperation in space, even as NASA eyes its next big leap with the Artemis II lunar flyby, which could launch as early as next month.
