LOS ANGELES — SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) Crew-12 mission autonomously docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.
The spacecraft lifted off at 5:15 a.m. Eastern time Friday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It docked with the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at about 3:15 p.m. Eastern time Saturday.
The four-member crew includes Nasa astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Crew-12 will conduct scientific research aimed at preparing for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit and benefiting life on Earth during the roughly eight-month mission, Nasa said.
The crew will study pneumonia-causing bacteria to help improve cardiovascular treatments and test on-demand intravenous fluid generation technologies for future space missions. They will also examine how physical characteristics affect blood flow during spaceflight.
Additional experiments include automated plant health monitoring and research into interactions between plants and nitrogen-fixing microbes to enhance food production in space, according to Nasa. / XINHUA