The four members of NASA'S SpaceX Crew-12 mission docked at the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon.
The crew blasted off before dawn on Friday morning from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The Crew-12 mission includes two NASA astronauts, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. During their eight-month mission, the crew will conduct scientific research to prepare for human exploration beyond earth's orbit and enhance food production in space.
"With Crew-12 safely on orbit, America and our international partners once again demonstrated the professionalism, preparation, and teamwork required for human spaceflight," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.
The mission replaces the crew from NASA's Crew-11 mission, which departed the ISS a month ahead of schedule in January due to a medical evacuation of one of the crew members. Since then, the space station has been operating with a reduced staff of three people — well below it's typical seven-person staff.
Isaacman also said that NASA is simultaneously making preparations for the 10-day Artemis II mission, which would send a crew of four astronauts around the moon. It's the first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and is slated to take off as soon as March.
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