{"id":9617,"date":"2026-02-15T21:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/replacement-crew-docks-at-space-station-boosts-crew-back-to-seven\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T21:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:09:06","slug":"replacement-crew-docks-at-space-station-boosts-crew-back-to-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/replacement-crew-docks-at-space-station-boosts-crew-back-to-seven\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacement crew docks at space station, boosts crew back to seven"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Crew 12 fliers cavort aboard the International Space Station shortly after floating inside Saturday. They joined station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, back left in black shirt, NASA astronaut Chis Williams and cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev, both wearing black shirts. The Crew 12 astronauts, from left to right, are cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (upside down), Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and French astronaut Sophie Adenot at far right. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule glided in for a Valentine\u2019s Day docking at the International Space Station Saturday boosting the lab\u2019s crew back to a full complement of seven one month after four other fliers came home early because of a medical issue.<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon docked at the space-facing port of the lab\u2019s forward Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. EST, 34 hours after launch Friday from the Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrateful to be on board, and we\u2019re ready to get to work,\u201d radioed Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, making her second long-duration stay aboard the space station.<\/p>\n

Joined by veteran Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and two space rookies, Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, the Crew 12 fliers opened the Crew Dragon\u2019s hatch and floated into the station two hours after docking.<\/p>\n

Amid hugs and handshakes, they were welcomed aboard by space station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams. They were launched to the outpost last November aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to Crew 12,\u201d Kud-Sverchkov said in a brief ceremony. \u201cWe are happy they all arrived safe and sound, we\u2019ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time. We\u2019re really happy and proud to work as a team here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meir replied, saying \u201cit is so wonderful to be back up here \u2026 You look around, the crew up here, and it\u2019s really a testament to everything we do, we have so many countries represented, so many backgrounds, so many disciplines, we are so excited to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Crew Dragon closes in on the space station after a smooth rendezvous, bringing four fresh crew members to the outpost. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the trip up, Adenot, a veteran French air force helicopter test pilot, sky diver and SCUBA expert, said SpaceX gave the crew \u201cquite a ride, very fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time we looked at the Earth was, wow, mind blowing,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Earth is so beautiful from up (here). We see no lines, no borders, it was a very big moment for us, for Jack and me, to see that for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meir and her crewmates are replacing Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, whose early departure last month left the station with just three occupants: Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams.<\/p>\n

While the outpost can be safely operated by a crew of three, a single NASA astronaut cannot carry out a full range of NASA and partner agency research as well as required maintenance.<\/p>\n

In addition, spacewalks, which require two astronauts using a \u201cbuddy\u201d system, are ruled out.<\/p>\n

NASA managers attempted to move up Crew 12\u2019s launch by about four days to as early as Feb. 11 to shave off some of the time Williams would be the sole operator of systems in the U.S. segment of the space station.<\/p>\n

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A camera inside the Crew Dragon capsule looks over the shoulders of commander Jessica Meir, left, and Jack Hathaway as they monitored cockpit displays during final approach to the International Space Station. Image: SpaceX via NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But because of conflicts with work to ready NASA\u2019s Artemis II moon mission\u200b for launch, along with high winds earlier this week along the Crew Dragon\u2019s ascent trajectory, Meir and company ended up launching Friday.<\/p>\n

With the addition of Crew 12, research in the U.S. segment can resume its normal pace and spacewalks can be staged as needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrew 12 is honored to join our Expedition 74 friends and colleagues \u2026 to add our chapter to the story of the International Space Station,\u201d Hathaway radioed.<\/p>\n

The rendezvous went off without a hitch. But earlier in the day, the crew held a private medical conference, or PMC, and said they might need a follow-on PMC after docking. They later confirmed they did, in fact, want a post-docking medical conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to go forward with that plan, so if you could just have the (flight) surgeon ready for us after we get all docked we would appreciate that,\u201d Hathaway radioed. Mission control replied: \u201cWe\u2019ll be ready to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under strictly enforced medical privacy guidelines, NASA does not discuss astronaut health issues, and it wasn\u2019t known what sort of issue might have prompted the request for a post-docking PMC.<\/p>\n

About half the men and women who fly in space suffer nausea and related symptoms during their initial adaptation to weightlessness, but the discomfort typically abates after a few days in orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crew 12 fliers cavort aboard the International Space Station shortly after floating inside Saturday. They joined station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, back left in black shirt, NASA astronaut Chis Williams and cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev, both wearing black shirts. The Crew 12 astronauts, from left to right, are cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (upside down), Jack Hathaway, Jessica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[828,717,190,316],"class_list":["post-9617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crew-12","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}