NASA and SpaceX target Feb 13 for launch of Crew-12 mission to International Space Station

NASA, on Wednesday, rescheduled the launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The liftoff is now scheduled no earlier than 3:45 pm IST on February 13 from Space Launch Complex-40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Crew-12 is NASA's 12th crew rotation mission to the orbital lab which will be launched atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. In an update on X, SpaceX said that the mission has been delayed from February 12 due to high winds in the ascent corridor at the launch site.

Crew-12 astronauts Sophie Adenot, Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Andrey Fedyeav (right to left).

The mission includes four astronauts - Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway of NASA, Andrey Fedyaev of Russian space agency Roscosmos and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency - who will spend eight months aboard the station. Crew-12 will mark the debut spaceflight for Adenot and Hathaway, and the second mission for Fedyaev and Meir.

The astronauts would conduct several experiments that would advance research for crewed Moon and Mars missions in the future. NASA says the research includes studying pneumonia-causing bacteria, how blood flow is affected during spaceflight and how to enhance food production in space.

If the mission does launch on the new date, the Dragon spacecraft carrying the Crew-12 members will reach the space station at approximately 1:45 am IST.

The astronauts will be welcomed by a 'skeleton crew' of three members who are currently aboard the station. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev along with NASA's Chris Williams are managing station operations since mid-January - when Crew-11 astronauts returned to Earth sooner than planned in what was the first-ever medical evacuation from the station.

Williams and team, who arrived at the station on a Soyuz spacecraft in November 2025, are set to return in July, after another Soyuz carrying three astronauts - Anil Menon (NASA) and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina - arrive to take over.