A SpaceX capsule will soon carry four astronauts to the International Space Station and operate the orbiting laboratory with a skeleton crew for a month before returning to full staff.
The mission, called Crew-12, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida by 5:15 a.m. ET on Friday.
NASA, which contracts with SpaceX to transport astronauts to and from the space station, had sought to expedite Crew-12’s launch due to staffing issues. However, due to bad weather along the rocket’s flight path, authorities had to postpone two launch slots scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
The International Space Station has been operating the International Space Station since mid-January with just three people, far fewer than the space agency’s desired seven.
The launch comes after a previous SpaceX staffing mission, Crew-11, was forced to return to Earth early due to undisclosed medical issues with an unidentified crew member.
“NASA was ready. The team responded quickly and professionally, as did teams across the agency, worked closely with our commercial partners, and executed a very safe return,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at a news conference in January, adding that the astronauts were in stable condition. “This is exactly why we train, and this is what NASA is all about.”
Crew-11 splashdown return Off the coast of California, all four astronauts went to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. The crew, including NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Finke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kamiya Yui, and Russia’s Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, attended a press conference afterwards.
“How we handled everything from start to finish, from nominal operations to this unexpected operation, bodes very well for future exploration,” Finke said.
The Crew-12 mission will include NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fezyaev.
NASA typically prefers to have a direct handover between arriving and departing crew members at the space station. This process allows for staffing levels up to 11 as the arriving astronauts orient themselves in the laboratory with the help of the departing crew.
Given Crew-11’s emergency medical departure, Crew-12 astronauts will not be given such a handover period. But Meir said she and her crew were able to exchange information with the Crew-11 astronauts on the ground.
“We met with them a few times and talked a little bit so we could pass on some pertinent things,” she says. said At a press conference on February 8th.
The premature departure of the Crew-11 cosmonauts left only three Russian cosmonauts, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, on the soccer field-sized space station., So did NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who visited the Orbiting Laboratory as part of a rideshare agreement with Roscosmos, NASA’s Russian counterpart.
The situation is less than ideal. NASA has always noted that a solid crew presence on the space station is critical to maximizing the value and productivity of its orbiting laboratory, which costs about $3 billion a year to operate and maintain.
But as Meir pointed out, before SpaceX began offering regular orbital trips to NASA’s space agency astronauts, it was common for just three astronauts to command the space station.
“When I last flew — about six or seven years ago — we did these indirect handoffs,” Meir said, referring to the process of handing off new crew members on the ground rather than in orbit. “It was more rare for other crew members to remain on board before you arrived and for a direct handover to take place.”
Still, temporarily carrying a crew of three on the station limits the amount of research that can be performed. And Isaacman indicated that he considers new research on orbiting laboratories a priority.
Isaacman said such research could help pave the way for a new commercial space station to replace aging laboratories. NASA has long wanted private companies to build space stations in low Earth orbit so they can focus their efforts on exploring the depths of the solar system.
“Like many space enthusiasts, I dream of the day when we have multiple commercial space stations in low Earth orbit,” Isaacman said in his speech. Senate confirmation hearing In December. “But for it to be an economically viable model, I think we need to absolutely maximize the remaining life of the International Space Station, which means we need to bring the best possible science and research into space.”
During their nearly eight-month stay on the space station, Crew-12 astronauts will carry out a series of research projects, including ultrasound scans of blood vessels to investigate changes in blood circulation and pharmaceutical research related to bacteria that cause pneumonia. The group will also run simulations of a moon landing to assess how sudden changes in gravity affect the human body and cognition.