A SpaceX crewed spacecraft carrying four astronauts from the United States, France, and Russia was launched on the 13th local time toward the International Space Station (ISS).
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), at 5:17 a.m. Eastern time, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The rocket launched with nine of SpaceX's Merlin engines firing and is scheduled to dock with the ISS after about 34 hours of flight.
Named "Crew-12," the mission includes NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Sophie Adenot, and the Russian Federal Space Agency's Andrei Padayev. They will stay for about eight months on the ISS, which orbits about 420 km above Earth, conducting research in science, technology, and medicine.
The research tasks include experiments on pneumonia-causing bacteria, analysis of blood circulation changes using vascular ultrasound, and assessments of how rapid shifts in gravity affect the human body and cognitive ability.
The mission also serves to fill the gap left by the "Crew-11" team, which returned early last month due to health issues. When treatment was deemed necessary for one team member, all four suspended the mission and returned to Earth.
NASA hastened the launch given that the ISS was short of its recommended crew of seven, but after two weather-related delays, it succeeded in launching on the day.
"Crew-12" is the 12th long-duration team NASA has sent to the ISS using a SpaceX launch vehicle.