NASA and SpaceX's Crew-12 mission is set to undock from the International Space Station on Oct. 7, ending an eight-month stay that included hundreds of scientific experiments and four spacewalks. The four-person crew will depart from the station's Harmony zenith port at 12:05 UTC (08:05 EDT) aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will spend approximately 27.5 hours aboard the capsule before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Oct. 8 at 06:34 UTC, which is 11:34 p.m. PDT on Oct. 7. SpaceX's recovery vessel Shannon will retrieve the vehicle and crew.
In their final days aboard the station, the crew packed essential items, tested their SpaceX pressure suits, and prepared the orbiting laboratory for the arrival of their replacements, Crew-13. Hours before undocking, the four will enter Freedom and close all hatches between the capsule and the station. Expedition 75 crew members will then verify pressure values and hatch seals before giving the final go for undocking.
Immediately after separating from the station, Freedom will perform a series of departure burns to move away before conducting orbit-lowering maneuvers. The spacecraft will then execute its de-orbit burn, jettison its trunk, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere for splashdown.
Crew-12 launched to the station on Feb. 13 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket carried Crew Dragon Freedom to orbit, and the vehicle docked on Feb. 14 at 20:15 UTC. SpaceX recovered the Falcon 9 first stage, B1101, using return-to-launch-site capabilities with a landing at Landing Zone 40.
The return was cleared by the arrival of Crew-13 on Oct. 1 at 23:05 UTC. Crew-13 also launched from SLC-40, lifting off at 11:10 a.m. EDT and docking to the Harmony forward port about eight hours later, marking the fastest rendezvous with the station by a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
During their stay, Crew-12 worked as part of ISS Expeditions 74 and 75. Meir and Adenot completed four extravehicular activities, or spacewalks, for station maintenance. Their first EVA on March 18 involved Meir and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams preparing the 2A power channel for the installation of an ISS Rollout Solar Array to provide additional power. Meir conducted three more spacewalks, including one with Adenot in which the pair replaced a retroreflector on the forward docking port of the Harmony module to improve navigation data for visiting spacecraft. During that six-hour and 49-minute spacewalk, Adenot became the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk and the second European female astronaut to do so.
Research conducted by the crew included crystal growth experiments that use microgravity to reveal details about crystal structures. Cancer-targeting treatments were crystallized to better understand their properties and advance cancer therapy on Earth. Another experiment took place in the Cold Atomic Lab, where ultracold atoms are observed for long periods. The microgravity and super-cold conditions produce Bose-Einstein Condensates significantly colder than those formed in Earth-based laboratories, making the quantum properties of atoms macroscopic and easier for scientists to study.
Crew-12 marks the fifth mission for Crew Dragon Freedom, following Crew-4, Crew-9, Axiom-2, and Axiom-3. Freedom was the fourth Dragon spacecraft manufactured and operated by SpaceX. When it splashes down with Crew-12, the capsule will have spent a total of 609 days and 11 hours in space.
With Crew-12 on its way home and Crew-13 beginning its six-month mission, Expedition 75 will continue operating the station. The event marks another completed mission for SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. NASA and SpaceX are already preparing for their next operational flight to the orbiting outpost, Crew-14, expected to launch no earlier than March 2027.