Today, spacex launch carried four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom on a roughly 34-hour trip to the International Space Station and ended with a docking to the Harmony node at about 3:15 p.m. EST, mission controllers reported.
The flight lofted NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. After soft capture, the crew completed leak checks and equalized pressure before opening the hatch, and Expedition 74 crewmembers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Chris Williams and Sergey Mikaev greeted the newcomers aboard. Kud-Sverchkov said the station team had waited a long time and were proud to work together, as reported by mission coverage.
Controllers also noted a midcourse burn that refined the approach and a routine pressure check of the SpaceX suits after teams found a partially open zipper on Hathaway’s glove. The mission used upgraded suits with improved joint mobility and a streamlined zipper design, and Meir radioed the arrival milestone, saying in flight coverage that soft capture was complete while the vehicles flew over the South African region.
Flight operations and NASA webcasts outlined the timeline, with hatch opening and welcome remarks following docking and crew ingress. The crew had displayed a handmade Gaia Earth zero-g indicator inside the capsule, a crocheted model representing each crewmember and personal touches carried for the flight.
Falcon 9 Milestone And Related Launch Activity
On the same weekend, SpaceX marked its 600th Falcon 9 launch with a Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, according to mission updates. That flight placed 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit and used first stage booster B1081 on its 22nd flight.
Booster B1081 returned to and landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You positioned in the Pacific Ocean, recording another successful touchdown for the reusable fleet. SpaceX noted the Starlink deployment occurred hours after the Crew Dragon Freedom arrived at the station, underscoring a busy operational cadence for the company over the weekend.
The launch and docking sequence followed a recent crew rotation context. NASA advanced the Crew-12 flight after an earlier in-orbit medical evacuation led to an early return for the prior crew, and agency leaders emphasized that astronaut health and safety remained a top priority while operations continued.
