Four astronauts from the United States, France, and Russia have launched towards the International Space Station (ISS) on a special NASA mission called Crew-12. They lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, pushed into space by a powerful Falcon 9 rocket.
The journey to the station will take about 34 hours before the crew docks and enters their new orbiting home. The team includes NASA Commander Jessica Meir and NASA Pilot Jack Hathaway, along with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Crew-12 is named for NASA’s 12th SpaceX flight carrying astronauts to the ISS.
The astronauts are taking over from another group that returned to Earth early in January after one crew member became unwell. Once on board, Crew-12 will live and work on the station for around eight months. Their main job is to run science experiments that help researchers understand how the human body copes with space.
This information is important for planning longer trips, such as future missions to the Moon and Mars. The crew will also explore how to grow food in space, where there is no soil and everything floats. Some of their work could lead to improvements for people on Earth, too, by helping scientists learn more about health and disease.
One study will look closely at cells involved in bacterial pneumonia, a serious lung infection that can make breathing difficult. By understanding how these cells behave, researchers hope to find better treatments. During the launch, Sophie Adenot called the mission a small step in exploring “our world and beyond”, and she has now become France’s second female astronaut in space.
