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2w ago

NASA, SpaceX Target Pre-Dawn Friday Launch for Crew-12 to the ISS

Managers cleared the mission to enter the countdown pending favorable weather along the Atlantic ascent corridor.

The Expedition 74 crew gathers for a portrait aboard the International Space Station in January 2025, when NASA astronaut Mike Fincke (front left) handed over command of the orbital outpost to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (front right).
Image
From left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot pose next to their mission insignia inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 crew members will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 to the International Space Station no earlier than 5:15 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 13, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship after he and his fellow crewmates landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on January 15, 2026.

Overview

  • Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than 5:15 a.m. ET Friday, Feb. 13, from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40 on a Falcon 9 with the Dragon spacecraft, with docking expected Saturday around 3:15 p.m. ET if launch occurs.
  • The Launch Readiness Review concluded with a 'go' to proceed, though teams are still watching elevated downrange winds that previously forced schedule shifts despite mostly favorable pad weather.
  • The four-person crew—NASA’s Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot), ESA’s Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos’ Andrey Fedyaev—remains in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center.
  • The eight-month rotation will restore the space station’s full staffing after a recent medical evacuation and will focus on life-science research, technology demos, and station upkeep.
  • SpaceX plans a first-stage landing at Landing Zone 40, and residents across several Central Florida counties could hear one or more sonic booms during the predawn recovery.