NASA and SpaceX have successfully deployed Crew-12 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The lift off happened at 5:15 a.m. EST (1115 GMT). The four-astronaut relief crew are set to reach the ISS on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 3:15 p.m. EST.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are set to join the Crew-11 astronauts.
Crew-11 group had to make an early return on Earth early because of a medical issue.
The Crew-11 astronauts were launched on January 14, leaving a sole NASA astronaut, Chris Williams, onboard the International Space Station, along with two Russian cosmonauts.
The crew lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:15 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The Crew-12 mission is the second spaceflight for Meir and Fedyaev, and the first for Hathaway and Adenot.
Meir previously spent 205 days on the ISS, beginning in July 2019. During that time, she and fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch created history by performing the agency’s first all-female spacewalks.
The four new space station crew members are scheduled to stay at the space station for around eight months to conduct scientific experiments such as research on food production in space, effect of microgravity on blood flow in the body, and further medical researches that may help explore “advance research and technology for future moon and Mars missions and benefit humanity back on Earth,” according to NASA.
