A SpaceX rocket launched from Florida early Friday morning, carrying two NASA astronauts, one French astronaut, and one Russian astronaut on an eight-month scientific mission in Earth orbit. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, topped by the autonomously operated Crew Dragon spacecraft named "Freedom," lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida's Atlantic coast at approximately 5:15 a.m. Eastern Time. Live webcasts from NASA and SpaceX showed the 25-story-tall rocket ascending from the launch pad, its nine Merlin engines roaring to life, consuming 700,000 gallons of fuel per second and billowing steam with a red fireball illuminating the pre-dawn sky.
The four astronauts are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon after a 34-hour flight, docking with the orbital laboratory platform located approximately 420 kilometers above Earth. Designated as Crew-12, this mission marks the 12th long-duration ISS crew rotation flight for NASA utilizing SpaceX's transportation services since the private rocket company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002, began ferrying U.S. astronauts to orbit in May 2020.
The Crew-12 mission is led by 48-year-old Jessica Meir, an experienced astronaut and marine biologist on her second trip to the space station. Nearly seven years ago, she made history alongside NASA colleague Christina Koch by performing the first all-female spacewalk. Joining her on the mission are 43-year-old Jack Hathaway, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and a new astronaut; 43-year-old European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, a veteran French helicopter pilot; and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, a former military pilot on his second ISS mission.
According to NASA, upon arrival, the crew will immediately begin a series of scientific, medical, and technological research experiments in the microgravity environment. These tasks include studying pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve treatments on Earth, and conducting experiments on plant interactions with nitrogen-fixing microbes to enhance food production in space.
The International Space Station currently has three astronauts—NASA's Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev—awaiting the arrival of Crew-12. The four members of Crew-11, who were originally scheduled to remain on the station until after Crew-12's arrival, left the station weeks early in an unprecedented medical evacuation flight in mid-January after one crew member experienced a serious, undisclosed illness.
The ISS, with a footprint equivalent to a football field, is the largest artificial object in space and is continuously operated by a U.S. and Russian-led consortium that includes Canada, Japan, and 11 European countries. The station's first hardware components were launched over 25 years ago. Its conception stemmed from a multinational cooperation project aimed at improving relations between Washington and Moscow, initiated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which had sparked the U.S.-Soviet space race of the 1950s and 60s. NASA has stated its commitment to maintaining station operations until at least the end of 2030.
SpaceX, the space exploration company founded and led by Elon Musk, is actively advancing its plans for an initial public offering. The company is anticipated to reach a valuation potentially exceeding $1.5 trillion, with a public offering targeted for around mid-2026. SpaceX has engaged with multiple banks, and the listing could raise funds exceeding tens of billions of dollars. The expected valuation for SpaceX is nearing the $1.6 trillion market capitalization of Tesla. The combination of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI is seen as potentially forming an ultimate "Musk super business empire."
Recently, SpaceX announced a significant acquisition of another private company founded by Musk—xAI, an artificial intelligence startup considered one of the strongest competitors to OpenAI. This move consolidates a super technology giant with business areas spanning "commercial aerospace (Starlink/Starshield), computing power (terrestrial/future orbital), AI large language models (Grok AI model/AI agent products), and marketing/distribution (X social media platform)."