SpaceX Dragon astronauts make Valentine’s Day docking at space station to boost skeleton crew (video)
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Credit: NASA
Residents of the International Space Station received a special Valentine’s Day gift.
EspaceXCrew-12 astronaut mission docked with reduced complement International Space Station (ISS) Saturday, February 14 at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT), ending a 34-hour orbital pursuit.
“With that gentle touch, we have bridged the legacy of humanity’s continued presence in space. It’s been more than 25 years at this very site,” Jessica Meir, commander of Crew 12, said by radio. “The International Space Station is more than a structure, it’s a promise kept. It was built over decades, built by nations, supported by trust and partnership, and fueled by science, innovation and curiosity.”
“Looking at Earth through these windows, we are reminded that cooperation is not only possible, it is essential. Here there are no borders and hope is universal,” she said.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Freedom” docks with the International Space Station, carrying the four members of Crew-12 for an eight-month stay on Saturday, February 14, 2026. | Credit: NASA
“After docking, the crew will remove their spacesuits and prepare the cargo for unloading before opening the hatch between Dragon and the space station’s Harmony module around 5 p.m. [EST]”, NASA officials said in a statement.
Crew-12 launched at the top of a Falcon 9 Florida rocket Cape Canaveral Space Station early Friday morning (February 13), sending four astronauts to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon “Freedom” capsule.
These crew members are NASA’s Meir and Jack Hathaway, mission commander and pilot, respectively; Sophie Adenot, mission specialist of European Space Agency; and mission specialist Andrey Fedyaev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Crew-12 is Hathaway and Adenot’s first spaceflight and Meir and Fedyaev’s second. The cosmonaut was a latecomer to the crew, arriving on board in early December to replace his compatriot Oleg Artemyev, who was would have shot for violating the US law known as ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations).
A Falcon 9 rocket launches SpaceX’s Crew-12 astronaut mission to the International Space Station from Florida’s Space Coast, February 13, 2026. | Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
Crew-12 astronauts are expected to live and work aboard the ISS until October, making their stay slightly longer than the crew’s usual six-month rotation.
The quartet joins three other astronauts on the ISS: NASA’s Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. The trio has had the orbiting lab to themselves since January 15, when the group of four Crew-11 the mission returned home to Earth.
Crew 11 left a month earlier than planned due to a medical issue with one of its astronauts, leaving the ISS with a skeleton crew for longer than expected. (NASA did not identify the astronaut or provide details on this concern.) It was the first medical evacuation in the history of the ISS, which has been continuously staffed since November 2000.
Seven has been the nominal crew size aboard the ISS since 2020. The initial baseline was three; this figure was doubled to six in 2009.
