SpaceX Dragon arrives for Crew-12 launch photo of the day for Feb. 6, 2026

A white spacecraft sits on a mobile scaffold underneath a bright blue sky.

The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule "Freedom" moves to the hangar at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

With the recent medical evacuation of SpaceX's Crew-11 astronaut mission from the International Space Station, Crew-12 will be launching earlier than planned as the relief crew for the ISS.

Crew-12 is comprised of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot) and mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew will ride on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom" for a longer-than-usual stay in orbit (around nine months instead of the typical six).

What is it?

The Crew Dragon capsule is a reusable, human-rated spacecraft built with funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program to ferry astronauts to and from orbit. The capsule includes all "crew-first" systems including life support, environmental controls, touch displays and an integrated launch-abort system. It's built to fly autonomously while still letting astronauts monitor and control the vehicle, and it can dock directly with the ISS before returning to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown.

Where is it?

This image was taken at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Why is it amazing?

Crew-12's mission timeline has been quite dynamic. Late last month, NASA and SpaceX moved the mission's launch up from Feb. 15 to Feb. 11, to more quickly relieve the skeleton crew of three astronauts currently aboard the ISS due to the recent medical evacuation.

And just a few days ago, SpaceX hit a snag unrelated to the astronauts themselves: the company temporarily grounded its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket after an issue with the rocket's upper stage. Whether this will affect Crew-12's launch date is still up in the air.

The launch of Crew-12 is especially important, as it will help re-stabilize the ISS after an unusual period of reduced staffing. With only three people aboard at the moment, everything from routine maintenance to space research is constrained. By returning the ISS to its normal complement of seven astronauts, Crew-12 will help get things back on track.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the International Space Station (ISS) and SpaceX's work.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Content Manager at Space.com. Formerly, she was the Science Communicator at JILA, a physics research institute. Kenna is also a freelance science journalist. Her beats include quantum technology, AI, animal intelligence, corvids, and cephalopods.

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