BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A new crew of astronauts is set to visit the International Space Station as soon as this week via Crew-12, which follows up the hasty but successful departure of Crew-11.
Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than 5:15 a.m. Friday, Feb. 13, according to NASA and SpaceX. Weather conditions are forecast to be 85% favorable at launch time.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, the Crew-12 commander, and Jack Hathaway, the pilot, will join mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos for eight months of research, technology demos and maintenance with the already-present crew of Expedition 74 — namely, NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev — according to the space agency’s blog.
“This research includes studies of pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve treatments, on-demand intravenous fluid generation for future space missions, automated plant health monitoring, investigations of plant and nitrogen-fixing microbe interactions to enhance food production in space, and research on how physical characteristics may affect blood flow during spaceflight," NASA’s blog post states.
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Read on for the astronauts’ bios, per NASA:
Jessica Meir
This will be the second flight to the space station for Meir, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. The Caribou, Maine, native earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University, a master’s degree in space studies from the International Space University, and a doctorate in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. On her first spaceflight, Meir spent 205 days as a flight engineer during Expedition 61/62, and she completed the first three all-woman spacewalks with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch, totaling 21 hours and 44 minutes outside of the station. Since then, she has served in various roles, including assistant to the chief astronaut for commercial crew (SpaceX), deputy for the Flight Integration Division, and assistant to the chief astronaut for the human landing system. Follow @Astro_Jessica on X and Instagram.
Jack Hathaway
A commander in the United States Navy, Hathaway was selected as part of the 2021 astronaut candidate class. This will be Hathaway’s first spaceflight. The South Windsor, Connecticut, native holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and history from the U.S. Naval Academy and master’s degrees in flight dynamics from Cranfield University and national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. Hathaway also is a graduate of the Empire Test Pilot’s School, Fixed Wing Class 70 in 2011. At the time of his selection, Hathaway was deployed aboard the USS Truman, serving as Strike Fighter Squadron 81’s prospective executive officer. He has accumulated more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 different aircraft, including more than 500 carrier arrested landings and 39 combat missions. Follow @astro_hathaway on X and Instagram.
Sophie Adenot
The Crew-12 mission will be Adenot’s first spaceflight. Before her selection as an ESA astronaut in 2022, Adenot earned a degree in engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, specializing in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics. She also earned a master’s degree in human factors engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. After earning her master’s degree, she became a helicopter cockpit design engineer at Airbus Helicopters and later served as a search and rescue pilot at Cazaux Air Base from 2008 to 2012. She then joined the High Authority Transport Squadron in Villacoublay, France, and served as a formation flight leader and mission captain from 2012 to 2017. Between 2019 and 2022, Adenot worked as a helicopter experimental test pilot in Cazaux Flight Test Center with DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement – the French Defence Procurement Agency). She has logged more than 3,000 hours flying 22 different helicopters. Follow @Soph_astro on X and Instagram.
Andrey Fedyaev
This will be Fedyaev’s second long-duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. He graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute in 2004, specializing in aircraft operations and air traffic organization, and earned qualifications as a pilot engineer. Prior to his selection as a cosmonaut, he served as deputy commander of an Ilyushin-38 aircraft unit in the Kamchatka Region, logging more than 600 flight hours and achieving the rank of second-class military pilot. Fedyaev was selected for the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Corps in 2012 and has served as a test cosmonaut since 2014. In 2023, he flew to the space station as a mission specialist during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, spending 186 days in orbit as an Expedition 69 flight engineer. For his achievements, Fedyaev was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation and received the Yuri Gagarin Medal.
If the launch goes as currently planned Friday, Crew-12 would arrive at the station station around 3:15 p.m. Saturday, according to NASA.
From there, a Soyuz spacecraft that’s scheduled to arrive to the space station in July will show up carrying NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, but will leave with Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev, according to NASA.
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