NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 Live Launch Coverage - 4K

Broadcast coverage of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the International Space Station follows NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev from suit-up inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Crew-12 launched on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 5:15 a.m. EST on the 12th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

What is said in the film

You. You. You're looking. Live inside the Dragon Freedom spacecraft. We are ready to go.

Crew 12 is inside. Just two hours from the liftoff to the International Space Station. We think about the challenges, come up with the technologies, and push the bounds of the science for the more ways that we can send humans into space, the better it is for our country and for the planet. Ready to get to work? What an amazing view from the International Space Station.

Wow. Look, I don't know. Spaceflight is a beautiful symbol of humanity. Miracle. How does one reach for these lofty goals?

Work hard and look what you can accomplish. Good morning, and welcome to America's Spaceport here in Florida. This is a live look at SpaceX Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Today's T0 is five, 15 and 55 seconds Am Eastern time. That's when Dragon Freedom, sitting on top of a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket, will launch four crew members, including two NASA astronauts, to the International Space Station.

And that is our new home for our commercial crew missions. Welcome, everyone. I'm NASA's Daryl Dale, and this is the official launch broadcast for crew 12. With me this morning is NASA astronaut and retired Army Colonel Doug Wheelock, aka wheels. That's the nickname.

So great to have you here, wheels. And, you're giving us your insight into this launch and crew 12 mission. You work in the astronaut corps. These are your friends and your coworkers who are going up today. We're happy to have you here.

We're very excited. It's a beautiful evening. Early morning. Perfect time for a launch. And we're very excited to get our crew up to the space station and get working on our science.

Absolutely. And as we look out at this beautiful overnight picture of our launch pad, we've been here early in the morning, the entire SpaceX and NASA teams getting ready for this moment and getting ready for tanking, which starts at T -35 minutes. We have a crew on board as well, and the crew flying today is the following NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. She is our commander and she is in the seat second from the right. There's her putting the arms up.

We have NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, who is seated to her right. Your left got the mustache, and we see his knees and boots clearly in frame. And then we also have ESA astronaut Sofia know she is the mission specialist today, and she is on the far, right of your picture. And then lastly, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andre Fedya, you have he is our mission specialist, and he's all the way to the far left of your screen there in the corner. You'll hear much more from them in a moment.

But first, here's a little more about wheels. Let me let me tell the audience about you a little bit, because you do have quite the resume. Colonel Doug Wheelock joined NASA in 1998. He's a native of New York. He holds degrees in applied science and engineering from the U.

S. Military Academy in West Point. He also has a master's in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech. And there you see Colonel Wheelock. He's a dual rated aviator and logged more than 7000 flight hours on the space shuttle.

As you see him launching right there with his friends. The retired Army colonel has spent more than 178 days in space. He flew on STS 120 back in 2007. And then here you see him on Soyuz as a flight engineer for expedition 24. And then he was I.

s. s. commander for expedition 25. Here he is walking out in space conducting six total spacewalks. More than 43 hours out in space.

Colonel Wheelock currently serves as the co-chair of the Joint Test Panel for NASA's Human Landing System. We're going to get into that later in the broadcast. He's also responsible for building the Artemis crew training strategy for returning astronauts to the moon, and safely back to Earth. And as you just saw, getting his haircut in space, and showing us all. So it's so good to have you here, Doug.

I mean, clearly, your resume is impressive. You've been to space, you've walked in space, and now you're training our future astronauts to land on the moon. Today, now we're focused on crew 12. And these are your fellow astronauts who you know. Well, what are they feeling in this moment?

This is, sort of the culmination of years and years of hard work for them and, of course, decades of dreams, for them, for, to fly in space. They've been training for this moment. And we have two, veteran, astronauts that are flying and two rookies. So it's a great mix, and that's a truly international crew as well. And, we got a, astronaut from ESA and two NASA astronauts.

That, of course, are, Russian, Roscosmos, Russian cosmonaut as well. Absolutely. And I think I've heard other astronauts say, and you would know this once you've flown in space, you've got the two veterans. They like to see the rookies experiencing their first spaceflight. Right?

There's there's real joy. And, witnessing others experience this magic of going to space. And so it's just a thrill for me to see, these I call them the youngsters now. They call me Papa Wheels. Some of these.

A guy called me Papa Wheels. So it's just great to see them experience this euphoria of, flying in space. And we're also, excited to watch you watch them through this broadcast. So now let's get you caught up with everything that's happened so far this morning as the crew prepared for launch. We have a little video reel that recaps everything.

It began inside the historic astronaut crew quarters, where SpaceX teams helped each crew member into their custom pressure suits. Before heading out, the crew paused for a final pre-launch tradition. You see it there. The card game gathering around the table. It's way to set the tone and leave any bad luck behind.

Then it was time to step outside. The crew walked out to greet family, friends and supporters following a path walked by every NASA astronaut since Apollo 7 in 1968. A short time later, the crew climbed into their Teslas, beginning the ride out to Launch Complex 40, escorted by security through Kennedy Space Center and onto the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As they arrived at the pad, the crew got out and got their first close up look at the Falcon nine rocket that you see there. It's ready for the mission and then they walked across their crew access arm in pairs.

First the commander and pilot, then the mission specialists, and then we saw him climb into Dragon and get into their seats for flight. Inside the spacecraft, seats were rotated into position and the suit checks were performed as the countdown continued and now we are watching it all live. Crew 12 strapped inside Dragon freedom. Waiting on the next major milestones on the road to liftoff. We're going to be getting some communication checks.

We're also going to see them, you know, check out their displays and do other pre-launch, maneuvers and, working through their checklist. But now it's a quiet time inside the capsule. Yes, they do have some time, to themselves. Now, as you get closer to launch the there's a time time compression as well. You just heard that the hatch is closed now in the, and so the time is going to start to compress for them as well.

So and here's a dual view. What you're looking at here on the left in the big screen is the crew inside their space capsule inside their spacecraft I should say. And then in the lower right that's the crew access arm as it extends out to the rocket bridging the gap between the spacecraft and the launch tower. That would be the way that astronauts in this moment, should something go wrong. When we get closer to tanking, they have the option up until that point to use that crew access arm.

But then once we get to tanking, then that crew access arm retracts away and they have to have an emergency egress. If something were to happen, we're also taking questions, as you can tell, as listening to Doug's biography and that little video reel. He's a wealth of information. So if you'd like to tap in and get a question into our astronaut, just look there at the bottom of the screen. Hashtag ask NASA.

We'd love to hear from you. We're taking your questions live using that hashtag ask NASA. So if you're watching on YouTube and just drop us a question, join the conversation. We'd love to have you question. We'll answer them live, right here on the air.

I say we Doug will. Wheels has got all the information, and we'll, he's more than happy to to answer your questions. And he does a great job at doing it. All right, let's take a closer look at the crew heading to space today. Dive in a little bit into each individual crew member.

Jessica Meir. She is a NASA astronaut commanding this crew 12 mission. She's a native of Maine and spent a total of 205 days in space on her only spaceflight. Back in 2019, Mir launched on a Soyuz rocket, and she was part of the first all female spacewalks with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Cook. Totally nearly 22 hours in space, Jessica earned a biology degree from Brown University.

When not training for spaceflight, Meir enjoys skiing, hiking, cycling and scuba diving, and she's conversant in both Swedish and Russian. Very smart commander, very capable. Been dismays. She's been to space and you know her well. Absolutely.

Jessica is awesome. I actually been in Russia with her, while she was training as well. And I really admire her skills for learning a new language because, that was the toughest part of my my studies. Getting ready to fly on the Soyuz is learning Russian, so. And she just the other day in a press conference, they didn't have the translator.

It wasn't on yet. I don't know why, but, she went ahead and translated her. Fedya? Yeah. On the fly.

So you can tell she, she knows her stuff. And so. Yeah, an impressive candidate and commander as well. Next up is your crew 12 pilot, NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway. He was born and raised in South Windsor, Connecticut.

He's married with two children. The Connecticut native earned bachelor's degrees in physics and history from the U. S. Naval Academy. Hathaway completed an operational tour aboard the USS Nimitz in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as Operation Inherent Resolve while aboard the USS Truman.

He has more than 2500 flight hours in 30 types of aircraft and flown 39 combat missions. This will be his first spaceflight. Very excited about Jack going. Yeah. The only downside to Jack, he's a Naval Academy graduate is coming from a West Point graduate from an Army guy.

We have we have great fun. During the Army-Navy games, we did we did fare so well this year. The team. But, Jack's just a great, test pilot at a, really a wealth of knowledge. And he also has a he's a wealth of dad jokes as well.

Is he one of those? So Jack's got some great dad jokes. Very good, very good. And along with, with the commander, Jessica Meir and Chris Williams, who's already up at the space station, they kind of form a little New England contingent there. Yeah, Jack's from Connecticut.

And with that, Jessica being from Maine and and of course, Chris Williams on the station, he's spent a lot of time in Massachusetts in Boston. And, so, it's going to be it's going to be a do weekly contingent. Yeah. Yeah. They'll have a nice something to talk about as they sit around their clam chowder.

Should they have any? Here's your mission specialist. Now, Sophie, I know she's representing the European Space Agency or ESA. This will also be her first trip to space. The French native studied engineering and specialized in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics.

During undergraduate work in France, and received her master's degree from MIT. Sophie joined the French Air Force in 2005, where she trained to become a helicopter pilot. That's something that's near and dear to your heart as a fellow helicopter helicopter pilot yourself. She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2022 and has been training since then for today's mission. Absolutely.

And as a helicopter pilot, she's perfectly ready to go to the moon with us as well. So if you haven't named her as such. But, you know, that's not official. Yeah, that's right, you. But she's got those skills that she's got.

Those skills were definitely, trading in helicopters these days. Get ready to go back to the moon. Yeah. And I want to talk to you about that, more when we talk about the Artemis mission, which is just, nearby on launchpad 39 B. But in the meantime, let's round out our crew with mission specialist Andre Fedya.

If he is a cosmonaut with Roscosmos, Russia's space agency. Of course, as a major in the Russian Air Force, he's logged more than 500 hours in Russian aircraft back in March of 2023, he launched as a mission specialist as part of crew six, where he spent nearly 186 days aboard the International Space Station. Andre is attempting to become the first Russian cosmonaut to fly twice inside the Crew Dragon capsule. And that is your crew 12. In fact, I think he'd be just the first astronaut in general to fly twice.

So I'm pretty confident that. Yeah, and, Andre is just a just an incredible human, just a great guy. And, a lot of fun to be around. He's he's, he's already flown in space, and he's, very, very competent. And on orbit as well, and apparently will be playing some harmonica once he gets on board.

He was mentioned he's taking that as his musical instrument. I hear that, Jessica is bringing a piccolo. She is. And, Andre is bringing, harmonica. And there's a couple of guitars on board as well.

So I think we're going to have, we're going to have some, a concert. Certainly. Yes, I think I put on a performance. I don't know if we'll get to hear it, but, if it's good, I hope we. I hope we do.

Well, crew 12 trained extensively, extensively for this mission. Let's take a look now at, their training. And as you look at this wheels, this is all very familiar to you. Talk to talk us through what they're doing here. So what you're seeing here is the.

This is the mockup of the space station that we have in Houston. And, it's a it's a full scale, a high fidelity mockup. And, we can practice stowage. We can practice all of our translation. And, maintenance, you know, maintenance of equipment and things in here.

So it's a great, mockup facility for us for training. And then, of course, the training in the in the space simulator, right in the, this is a full scale simulation of the of the spacecraft, the Dragon spacecraft. And then emergency training. Of course, we do emergency training as well. We do, medical training, medical emergencies and reaction to that.

We also, as you can see, Jack suiting up, to get into the water, go underneath the water. We train in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. This is where we practice our spacewalks. We're we're in the water. We could pull ourselves to neutral buoyancy as we work on the outside of the space station mockup.

That's underwater. You spent a lot of time in that pool, right? Caring for your own EVAs? Absolutely. We also do water survival, as you know, the the the SpaceX Dragon capsule, splashes down in the water at the end of the mission.

Right. And as we approach the liftoff of crew 12, normally, when a new crew arrives at the International Space Station, there's a brief overlapped, direct handover between the outgoing crew and the incoming one, which includes a formal change of command ceremony on orbit. But this time, it's going to be a little different. That ceremony already took place just before Crew eleven's earlier return, due to a medical issue involving one of its crew members. So crew 11 had to come down just a little early.

They safely splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on January 15th, clearing the way for Crew Twelve's arrival today. Absolutely. And we were able to do some of that handover in Houston before the crew came into quarantine. So, a lot of that has been accomplished already, and we're getting ready to do a handover with Chris. Williams.

Once they get to space. Absolutely. And as crew 12 gets ready to launch, here's a prelaunch tradition that we would like to share with you the signing around the mission patch inside the operations and checkout building. Of course, this is inside crew quarters where the astronauts are there and there they got their their their patch front and center. But they get to put one on the side and then sign it.

That's awesome. Yeah. This is a tradition that we do. And that's, just a fun, fun way to leave our mark. And there mark is left.

Indeed, as they just passed by this area. It's in the hallway. They're in astronaut crew quarters, the elevator just to the side. They passed that area just a couple hours ago or so, and now we see them live inside the spacecraft. So we introduce you to each of the crew members.

Talked a little bit about them, but now we want to hear directly from them. So let's hear now starting with the commander of crew 12, Jessica Meir. We're going to hear her in her own words. She is one of time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Space exploration is important to me because it was my dream from the time that I was a child, but more so it is about exploration.

It is about science. It is about all of these spinoffs and potential applications that we can bring back to everybody on Earth. It's not my mission or Crew Twelve's mission. It's really a mission for all of humanity and civilization, for our entire planet. My name is Jessica Meir, and I'm the commander for NASA's space six crew 12 mission to the International Space Station.

I grew up in a small town in northern Maine called caribou. My mom tells me that I started saying I wanted to be an astronaut when I was five years old. From the time that I was young, biology was always my favorite subject, but still trying to participate in any type of space related activity that I could get my hands on. I had always wanted to fly, so I started taking flying lessons at Brown as well. So I got to come here to the NASA Johnson Space Center and fly in NASA's Vomit Comet, something that I found that has carried true into this job as well.

That for me, when I have something that's both a mental and a physical challenge, that's really when I feel most complete. And so I had that in the Antarctic. I have that in this job as well. It certainly is this dream come true. And being an astronaut, having had the incredible opportunity to fly to the International Space Station one time already and to be returning back there, every experiment that we've ever done here on Earth has this omnipresent factor, this gravitational vector that we have all had from the beginning of the evolution of humans.

So you can imagine if you remove a really large variable like that, there might be a wealth of anticipated outcomes. But there also may be some things that we don't know about. And that's the aspect of basic science that appeals to me so much, because the joy of science is these unexpected outcomes. A lot of our greatest scientific discoveries have not been from the hypothesis that the scientist went in on, but some completely unexpected result and that's when things get really exciting. So to me, the basic science that we're conducting on the International Space Station has a lot of potential.

Both Jack and Sophie are rookies. They haven't been in space before. So for me, mentally, it's been a lot different because this is the first time that I'm serving as a commander. I'll be commander of the spacecraft and also of the International Space Station for part of our day. Flying with these two rookies is so rewarding because I hope that I can help shape their experience and make it extremely positive.

One and and watching them be the excitement and doing things for the first time has been so rewarding. And seeing that positive impact, hopefully that I can have on them has been something that's very special. Speaking of the very rookies she mentioned, up next is crew 12 pilot Jack Hathaway, who's counting down the minutes till his first journey to space. No matter what happens in the next couple of years, it's not going to slow down. We're not going to go backwards.

We're not going to sit on our heels and say that, hey, we've already done this. We can just wait and go slowly. There's a lot of motivation around the world to explore the moon and beyond. It's only going to get faster and more exciting, and more opportunities are going to open up and present themselves. My name is Jack Hathaway, and I'm the pilot for NASA's SpaceX crew 12 mission to the International Space Station.

I grew up in South Windsor, Connecticut. It's kind of a small, not quite rural town on the outskirts of Hartford. I ran cross-country, I played a little bit of soccer. I went to the public schools in South Windsor. I was an Eagle Scout with pack 186.

It was kind of a nice, relaxed, kind of normal American childhood. I think like most kids, I was interested in all sorts of things when I was young. Being an astronaut was one of them. As I started grew up, I became interested in flying, becoming a pilot out of that, grew out becoming a military pilot. I never really lost the bug.

I was kind of always interested in space, but I fell in love with flying for the Navy for a bunch of years. I remember what it was like as a child wanting to be an astronaut and all that sort of inspiration, and it never really left me. And I found it again. And then I found myself here. My crew and I were going to climb in a Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon nine rocket, and we're going to ride that beautiful rocket up into orbit of Earth.

And then we're scheduled with expedition 74 and 75 aboard the International Space Station. Our goal is to integrate with the crew that's already up there and be able to operate, maintain the space station. I'm excited about the opportunity to participate in some of the 3D printing experiments that are going on in low-Earth orbit. I think as we get further away from Earth, it's going to be unpredictable what brakes and what type of equipment we're going to need, and it's going to be harder and harder to produce it on Earth and then launch it in space. So our ability to create tools, build hardware or even whole habitats with 3D printers is going to be key to our development.

Moving out towards the moon and Mars. As you visit the different sites that construct the hardware, construct the rocket or components and science experiments for the space station. When you get to meet those people and you see the passion and excitement in their eyes that they really want to be there, that they're not there by accident, they want to be part of that team that develops that piece of hardware, that piece of software, or that science experiment that's going to go to the space station. There's so many people around the world that are excited, passionate, and motivated to be part of human spaceflight. We have a short time on this Earth, short time in orbit, and someone else is going to have to pick up the reins after we move on to the to the next place.

And it's important to inspire the next generation. So they're ready, excited, and they can see what we've accomplished and then go even further. And today's launch will be just the second crewed mission ever to launch from Space Launch Complex 40. As you're looking at it live, that's there at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Crew nine launched in September 2024, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorman off, marking the first time humans had lifted off from slick 40.

And now we're back. The pads inaugural launch was a Titan three. See, back in June of 1965. Let's hear now from ESA astronaut Sophie had no on her first trip to the space station. For a space exploration, I really love the sense of wonder.

Every step we take forwards enables us to push our limits. My name is Sophie Eddino and I'm a mission specialist for NASA's space X crew 12 mission to the International Space Station. I was born in the countryside in the middle of France, in Burgundy, and out there. There was not a ton of technology, but there were beautiful skies and beautiful stars. So during my childhood, I spent many, many hours stargazing.

I just read a lot about spaceflight, but to be honest, I had no idea how I could make this dream come true. And then when I was 14 years old, I read an article about the launch of Cloudendure and she was the first French woman astronaut. It was a mind blowing moment for me because then from that day on, I thought she made this dream come true. So why not me? The path was long and challenging, but I wouldn't remove any of the challenges on the way.

And and I loved this. This whole path to becoming an astronaut. Training is so varied. We've been diving into simulations, robotic operations, safety drills, emergency. A rehearsal of all of the actions in case of a fire.

We've learned to pull a two fold. We have learned together to respond to a present rapid to press onboard the space station. My crewmates and I, we just don't train together. We become a crew together. The most important thing we've built is trust.

We've been challenged together. We've traveled together. We've shared meals together. All of this enables to understand how the other's work. The timing's the humor and everything that makes people happy on board.

And it's really what matters when it's about being in close quarters. 250 miles above the earth. T -one hour and 33 minutes and counting. As we look down at Launch Complex 40, finally, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andre Forgive, sharing his thoughts as he prepares for his second flight aboard Dragon to the International Space Station after making his first spaceflight. Dragon basics for your awareness was that team that departed the crew arm, now heading back as a member of crew 12 of us for driving copy of our souls and learning of what some to some, you know, post-apocalyptic mutilation.

Yes. Andrey. Yeah. Specialist. Pilot.

Crew did not search and then transferred. The objective. Yeah. Smash that some dragon up to, to pass through. You mean the miasma, though, is still a a group machine is not a robot.

But you don't you don't know, a dragon. Let us, at the backup solar, endeavor, see us at about, I guess my freedom. Swoboda. Yeah. You know, you see, blue moon.

Mars. Nice. Total boobs. Did not. Pamuk.

Business was he even, stellar? He put you more, minion as much to keep us. He took a score. Get, Toto. But, you know, is precisely not sure when you keep, just simple.

Currently, t -one hour, 31 minutes and counting until Dragon freedom flies. Crew 12 to the International Space Station. And we've got the crew inside the spacecraft as we look out at the evening sky. It's early here in Florida. 3:44 a.

m. Eastern time. And they're inside the capsule. Inside the spacecraft. Commander Jessica Meir, she's the second from the right.

We have pilot Jack Hathaway. He is the third from the right. And we've got ESA astronaut in mission specialist Sofia. No, she's at the far right. And then all the way to the far left.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Andre, I have. All right. Coming up around one hour and 30 minutes, we will check the launch escape system, basically doing a health check on this system and so feels this is something you experienced inside space shuttle. Inside Soyuz, there's a moment where you want to make sure that your whatever system you're going to be using was very different on shuttle from Soyuz. Is is good to go.

Absolutely. There are we possibly we could do a pad abort. We want to be ready for that. The crew is trained for that. And we have the, we have the option to exercise that system if needed.

So, we'll do a check out of the automated system, and then we'll we'll handover, handover to the crew later in the flow when they activate the system from an onboard as well. So, it's, it's a very, very, choreographed sequence, and they'll following those up pad checkouts here in the moments to come. Got just a few seconds before that kicks off. Let's standby. While we wait to hear that, loop kick in, talk a little bit about the weather.

You can see in the bottom right hand side of your screen has our beautiful shot from our helicopter team here at the Kennedy Space Center, providing this live view and circling pad 40. Beautiful weather outside, especially for launch. We are now, according to launch weather Officer Brian Sisk, who's working this launch. We are now 95% go. That's up from 90.

I'll take those odds. Those are great ones. A nice overnight launch. There was a weather discussion, you know, about, a front that just recently came through. We do have a few showers, off in the Atlantic, but they're 50 to 60 miles away.

The only mild, very mild concern would be, possibility of a cumulus cloud rule or flight through precipitation violation. But now that it's down to a 5% chance, I mean, that, just as you said, bodes extremely well for our launch today. Those are great odds. And so, I think we're going to see a beautiful, nighttime launch and, let's get a light up the night. And we're very excited about our crew getting ready to go.

That's right. T0 five, 15 and 55 seconds Am eastern time. And what a beautiful launch it will be. We've got, questions coming in already. Folks up at this hour.

But, you know, we've got people all around the world and it different time zones. It could be, you know, one of those good hours. So, let's, go ahead and take a few questions now and, see what's on folks mind as they probe the mind of wheels. Leroy Jones asks, what is the first thing astronauts like to do when they get released from quarantine, when they get released from quarantine? I don't suppose they're released from quarantine until they come back from space.

That's true, that's true. So when they get out of quarantine, they're heading to their rocket. So. So, but, but coming back from space, it takes a few days of, of testing. Once you get back on the ground and then do your release to see your families.

Now, there are certain things they don't want us to do. They don't want us to drive for 45 to 60 days because of, just some sort of motion parallax and things, some other things that could be confusing, to your brain once you get on the ground. So, they, they're very reticent to let us run outside as well, because your balance system is a little bit topsy turvy when you get back first, get back to Earth. It's like. It's like a toddler.

I told my son, don't run, don't run. Is that something you have to tell yourself? Like that's true. That's very true. And actually, when you get to space two, there are very basic things you have to sort of relearn in zero g or micro G.

You have to learn how to brush your teeth, how to drink water, how to eat food, how to go to the bathroom, all these things you sort of have to relearn once you get to space, maybe you don't feel like running either, right? I mean, you, you're aware of what you're capable of doing there. Yes, absolutely. There are some, obviously some, muscle atrophy, some bone loss and things like that that we experience on long duration flight. And so those things, can play havoc at us and rehabilitation as well.

All right. Great question. Thank you for that. And keep them coming. Just use the hashtag ask NASA on YouTube and X and we may feature your question live.

Let's talk I. s. s. research. Now.

Crew 12 is headed to the International Space Station. Will be where they will be doing their research. And here's a closer look now at how some of the great science work is happening up there in low Earth orbit to improve life for us here on Earth. The International Space Station isn't just a symbol, it's a powerhouse of cutting edge science, constantly revealing secrets that defy Earth's limitations and drive us farther into the cosmos. Our mission is research and science.

We have experiments mounted on the outside of the station that are looking at Earth. We study our own bodies and how they react to space, to weightlessness, to radiation. And that helps not only us. Go on, further in future missions, but also helps, for medical research back home. And then we study lots of different things as well, like materials, combustion, all sorts of things that help us understand life back on Earth.

Yeah, microgravity doesn't play by the rules. It flips them upside down, transforming how liquids flow, how flames burn, and unraveling biological mysteries before our eyes. I saw some heart tissues beating in space and it was incredible. How can we see that happen? Breathing looks like happy heart cells.

But we're not just along for the ride. We're explorers diving headfirst into the challenge and harnessing the power of this unparalleled platform. Just as we have been for decades, we're on a relentless quest for answers, seeking to understand the intricate workings of the human body in space and ensuring future crews stay safe on their daring journeys beyond Earth's orbit. The human aspect of human space exploration is always going to be very important for decades to come. And when it comes to technology, we're not waiting around.

We're discovering new ways to grow crops in harsh environments and engineering innovations to tackle Earth's greatest challenges. We have amazing technology that allows us to recycle water and create water for us to drink. It's delicious. Microgravity isn't just a curiosity, it's a game changer in the fight against diseases back on Earth, paving the way for breakthroughs that benefit us all and enabling new economic opportunities in space. Welcome.

Axiom three on board the International Space Station from our vantage point, more than 200 miles above Earth, we are not just spectators. We're gaining unprecedented insights into the world we call home. And we're sharing our findings openly. We're not just achieving results today. We're sparking inspiration and future generations of explorers and embracing the power of global collaboration as we reach for the stars.

What was your favorite experiment on the International Space Station? Tobi great question. My favorite experiment was the one that I got to eat. It was us growing hatch chili peppers in our plant habitat home through on two. We have video in mode one.

Look at those chili peppers. And as we saw through space at 17,500mph, each moment is a step closer to unlocking the mysteries of our Earth, our universe, and propelling our pioneering spirit even farther into space. So come along for the ride aboard the International Space Station. T-minus one hour, 22 minutes and counting. Let's take you inside Mission control now in Houston, where flight controllers are continuously monitoring the International Space Station and the people on board, NASA's Schneider is there.

Live in Houston at Johnson Space Center on a good early morning to you. Early morning to you. Good morning Daryl. Yes I am joining you live from Mission Control Houston inside the International Space Station flight control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center here in Houston, Texas. Currently on console the orbit.

One team of flight controllers continue to prepare for today's launch, led by flight Director Jarryd Hayne. Today, we will be launching the 12th rotational crew mission to the International Space Station under the agency's Commercial Crew program, following Crew Twelve's arrival to the space station targeted for Saturday at 2:15 p. m. central, 3:15 p. m.

eastern, the space station will have a total of seven crew members representing three different space agencies, including NASA, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos. After tomorrow's docking and hatch opening, crew 12 will join expedition 74, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Could Sphere Skov and Sergei Mikhail of this trio arrived to the space station aboard the Soyuz Ms. 28 spacecraft in November, and once onboard, crew 12 will complete a safety briefing and orientation before jumping right in to continue the science and technology demonstrations taking place in the orbiting lab's unique microgravity environment. Crew. I mean, expedition 74 began in December following the departure of the Soyuz Ms.

27 spacecraft and will continue into July of this year following the departure of the Soyuz Ms. 28 spacecraft in July, which will carry NASA astronaut Chris Williams and his Roscosmos crewmates back to Earth. Expedition 75 will officially commence, led by Commander Jessica Meir, who is also commander of the crew 12 spacecraft today. All of this, of course, coming up after today's launch. So for now, we will continue with the countdown and with under two hours before launch, we'll send it back to the Space Coast to Daryl and Doug.

That's right. And, we are here at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida looking out at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Right now, crew 12 is inside Dragon Freedom. And so far, crew 12 has completed their comms checks. Make sure they can communicate.

They're working on those with the, teams on the ground. Their seats have rotated from their upright to reclined launch position, which allows them to see and access, of course, those display panels in front of them. They have also completed their suit leak checks to make sure their spacesuits are working properly. And they do that twice. Wheels both before as they're suiting up, and then they check it again once they're in the spacecraft.

It's kind of a critical component. Absolutely. The integrity of that suit is so important. So we do do a couple of checks of those, suits and make sure we have no leaks. If you lose pressure inside the spacecraft, that's where the suits come in.

The suit will inflate automatically, connected to the system. So it protects us from a rapid decompression of the cabin. And that's critical. As you mentioned, of course, the the spacecraft is well sealed, especially at the hatch. But, because spaceflight is such a risky endeavor, you never know what will happen.

And so, having the spacesuit that can act as your little Earth provide the oxygen and the pressure, is critical. Absolutely. And I think the crew, all the crew is wearing the new ATA, upgraded suits, which is a different enclosure. And so the we'll be checking those, new enclosures as well. So this is an upgrade to our suit to allow for adjustable adjustability and know that it's really key because we were learning about, these new suits.

Mike Fincke, of course, flew one, on the last mission for the first time. Now, all four crew members will have direct, but, expandability and and you can get in it easier. Absolutely. Yeah. The donning and doffing in space because you actually your, your, your spine sort of elongates in space as well.

So when he get suited to come back home, you're a little bit bigger than when you are taller. When you went up. And so, sometimes it's a, it's a tight squeeze it to those suits and so helps with donning and doffing of the suit. All right. Well you know they've got to like that.

If you actually get taller in space coming up in a few minutes, we will expand our live coverage with teams in Hawthorne, California, to help us walk through today's launch and ascent. And of course, we have been asking you to submit your social questions and hashtag ask NASA. And we've got another question now. Okay, for your wheels. So let's answer, some of those that came in.

Josh re asks, what would the astronauts do the last couple of hours before launch? Well, we're in the last couple of hours. Absolutely. They're actually in their spacecraft, about 2. 5 hours before they launch.

And so and they're sitting sort of on their backs with their feet up. And you might try this at home. You could lay on the, on the floor next to a chair or the sofa, and put your legs up on the chair and sit like that for two hours, 2. 5 hours. And so, so that's the, that's sort of the position they're in right now.

And so, it can be a little get a little uncomfortable. And so, but you could move around just a little bit to kind of now other spacecraft that we I fluid the Soyuz. And it was kind of a tight squeeze for me. And so your, your knees are up closer to your chest on that one. So and the space shuttle was very similar to the SpaceX Dragon capsule as well.

And there's only a certain amount of time that, any individual, an astronaut included, who's an excellent physical shape, can can stay on their back. It's not an issue with, the spacecraft load because they load their propellant with the astronauts in there. So that's true. That's true? Yeah.

That's, That's right. Now it is important we got to integrate, the crew to the spacecraft as well. So and those things take time, and they come in sequence as well to include the suit leak checks and things like that. So. Well, before they got on board the spacecraft, as you see them here, one of the things, one of the first things that crew 12 did was design their mission patch.

Take a look at this. The enchanted forest that you see kind of encircling in the middle there, that, reflects the crew's shared love of four bright stars. I'm sorry. The shared love of nature, their shared love of nature and their optimism for the future. Then you also see four bright stars throughout.

The patch there, those light the night sky, one for each crew member, with the smaller stars nearby around them representing, the children who inspired them. At the center, you see the dragon breathing fire, symbolizing the energy and determination driving this crew's journey to the International Space Station. And along the curve of the Earth below. You see the flags of the crew crew's home nations that remind us that, this mission is built on strong global partnerships. And, of course, they have the support that carried them with the Roman numeral 12 at the bottom.

It's a nice patch, I love it. The symbology is incredible, actually, as Jack and I think it was, Andre and and Sophie had mentioned they came from small towns and, so they, they were nature was their playground. So the, the dark skies and the and the beautiful stars at night, that they that allowed them to dream about things that could be. It's great to see that inspiration and that passion molded into the patch. And, you know, they all seem to have a little bit of artistic flair to them with the musical instruments and whatnot.

So it's, it is a beautiful, thing to see. As they are settled into their seats, they're. Every crew member we talked about this earlier who goes up into orbit, takes some reminders of home with them. Here's what crew 12 is taking up. Jessica Meir is bringing her piccolo, as you mentioned.

That should be interesting. I she teased that maybe we might get to hear that in some form or fashion, so we'll have to stay tuned for that. Of course, she's also bringing different mementos from different institutions, organizations, universities. She's bringing a small stuffed rabbit that belongs to her three year old daughter. There are actually two of them.

One will stay on Earth with her daughter, and then the other one will go up into space, and they will share photos back and forth during the mission with that rabbit. And that's precious. Jack Hathaway is bringing, something that he's flown as a personal gift that he's going to give back when he gets back on Earth. Sophie Paterno is bringing the mission patch of Claudy hike near the first French woman astronaut who flew to space on August 17th, 1996, aboard the Soyuz TM 24 mission. Hugger inspired.

I know, and so many people in France, to do what she wanted to do in order to honor her. And so that, of course, inspiring her as an astronaut. And then Andre is bringing, a small thing, like some gifts that he's going to take up into space, then bring back and give them to friends. Absolutely. And you'll you'll see the crew will reveal their Zero-G indicator as well once they get to space.

And so, we'll leave that for the crew to tell us all about that when they release that, Zero-G indicator. Looking forward to that. Every single crew since going all the way back to the very first demo two mission, in 2020, brought a Zero-G gravity indicator. So yes, we will await to see what this crew has in store for us. On my Soyuz flight.

Fyodor, your chicken. My commander brought a little dog that he was given back in elementary school. Not a real dog. Not a real dog, but just a little Zero-G indicator that we had a little stuffed dog and his. This teacher said that.

Take this ever. Wherever you go and, And share your journey. His teacher from his. Yes. Early elementary school years.

How about that? That's beautiful. Well, the Dragon spacecraft freedom will take crew 12 to space today. And when it does so, it will be the freedom's fifth space flight. A veteran spacecraft with a lot of miles already on the clock.

It's first flight crew four. Since then, freedom has flown a mix of NASA and private missions, including a couple of axiom flights. It's already spent more than a year in space. The name freedom, as you can see there, was chosen by crew for commander Kjell Lindgren on the left. There, it's a nod to the basic human right and what's possible when curiosity, innovation and the human spirit are left unrestricted and there is freedom docked to the International Space Station, a beautiful sight here it is on the ground, awaiting its ride into space.

If we launch at five, 15 and 55 seconds am, it'll take roughly a day and about ten hours to get, to get to the space station. Absolutely. It'll take about 8 or 9 minutes to get to space from the launch pad. A quick ride to space, and then we'll do the phasing to dock with the International Space Station. And welcome to those of you joining us for our live coverage of NASA and SpaceX's crew 12 mission to the International Space Station.

We are now inside the final hour, or roughly, we're getting close to the final hour before liftoff. Currently at T -one hour and ten minutes. As we move into this critical phase of the countdown, in a moment, we will be joined by our colleagues at SpaceX to to reintroduce you to, all of you out there watching. I'm NASA's Daryl Dale. And for the past hour, I've been joined by this man who feels NASA astronaut and U.

S. Army Colonel Doug Wheelock, a veteran space flier who's been helping break down today's mission and answering your questions. And you'd be doing a great job at it. We really appreciate it. I appreciate that, Daryl.

So exciting to be here with you, sharing your knowledge and your information and your experience has been a tremendous value to this broadcast. Crew 12 is launching from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. We're lifting off at five, 15 and 55 seconds Am eastern time. And, as we mentioned, it's just a little more than an hour away. Once this crew arrives at the station, they will join expedition 74.

Now, here's a look back at how this morning unfolded. As the crew prepared for launch. The day began inside the historic astronaut crew quarters, where space teams helped each crew member enter their custom pressure suits before heading out. The crew paused for a final pre-launch tradition right here, gathering around the table for a card game, a way to set the tone and leave any bad luck behind. Then it was time to step outside.

There they are, walking the path walked by every NASA astronaut since Apollo seven, in 1968. A short time later, the crew climbed into their test Teslas after saying goodbye to their families and loved ones. Then, in pairs, after they arrived to the launch pad, they checked out their rocket, got their close up look at the Falcon nine there you see them walking right next to the rocket, which is right there before they climb the launch tower. And then in pairs, they walked across the crew access arm. First the commander and pilot, then the two mission specialists, and then we saw them climb into their dragon and get into their seats for flight.

As you see here, they articulated their seats, basically rotating them into position. They did their suit leak checks and their comm checks as the countdown continued. And now we are back live watching them live both on the pad and inside the spacecraft, strapped inside Dragon freedom, waiting on the next major milestone on the road to liftoff. It's been a good journey and we've been tracking it the whole way slowly up. And, now things are going to start to pick up.

Once we get inside of an hour, you'll hear some things on the loops. That will be sequence. Tests that go will go on as we get ready for launch as well. And with that hatch closed, I imagine there's a very specific type of quiet inside that capsule. There's there's a spacecraft.

There's, a little bit of nervousness that goes on. I'm. I'm sure that Jack will provide some dad jokes to light the atmosphere a little bit. But, but, yeah, it's, it's game time. So it's, The crew's getting into the zone.

They're probably talking about, maybe reviewing in their mind, their initial steps. And so they're ready to go. All right, speaking of ready, go. At this time, we're expanding our coverage to include our partners at SpaceX. So let's welcome in our team.

Joining us live from Hawthorne, California. Good morning. Or in your case good evening. Are you still on today. Yeah I think smell.

No it looks like you're you're with us here today. It's. Good morning. Thanks, Daryl. I'm Jesse Anderson, a senior production and engineering manager here at SpaceX.

And I'm Sandra Jones with NASA communications. We are excited to be joining you once again from Hawthorne. It is always a pleasure to be here, especially today as we countdown to liftoff of crew 12 just over an hour from now. As the name suggests, crew 12 is our 12th operational mission with SpaceX flying astronauts for a long duration missions to the International Space Station and the 13th as the part of NASA's Commercial Crew program with SpaceX. Today's crew will fly aboard Dragon Freedom, which first supported NASA's crew four mission in 2022 and since then has flown several missions, including axiom Missions two and three and NASA's crew nine.

Crew 12 will be Dragon's 17th visit to the space station, with crew on board and its 20th human spaceflight mission overall. So let's meet today's crew. In the commander's seat is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who spent a total of 205 days in space on her first spaceflight back in 2019 and was part of the first all female spacewalks. She holds a biology degree from Brown University. Next to Mir is pilot Jack Hathaway, making his very first flight to space.

The Connecticut native earned bachelor's degrees in physics and history from the U. S. Naval Academy, and he has more than 2500 flight hours and 30 types of aircraft and has flown 39 combat missions during several military operations. Serving as a mission specialist is Sophie Adorno, representing the European Space Agency, or ESA. The French native studied engineering and specialized in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics during undergraduate work in France, and received her master's degree from MIT.

This will also be her first trip to space. And rounding out this crew is Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Andre said. Giant. As a major in the Russian Air Force, he's logged more than 500 hours in Russian aircraft. Back in 2023.

He launched as a mission specialist as part of crew six, where he spent nearly 186 days aboard the International Space Station. Once on board the International Space Station, crew 12 will become members of expedition 74 and add to the milestone of over 25 years of humans living and working aboard the International Space Station. Crew 12 will contribute to hundreds of experiments aimed at advancing research and technology for missions to the Moon and Mars, and to benefit humanity back on Earth. This research includes using the unique microgravity environment of the space station to study pneumonia causing bacteria, and how they can lead to long term damage in the heart. This research could lead to new methods to manage cardiovascular health and infectious diseases here on Earth, so we're looking forward to hearing more about the research that continues to take place on space Station later in today's broadcast, and how it helps NASA prepare to return to the moon and go on to Mars.

But for now, let's check in with another member here in Hawthorne, Kate Tice. Kate, how's it going? Hey, Sandra, thank you. And good morning to all of you watching. I'm Kate Tice, senior quality systems engineering manager here at SpaceX.

And I'm excited to be joining you again today from right outside Mission Control in Hawthorne. As you can see, just over my shoulder now as we continue to countdown to launch, will walk you through what to watch for as the clock nears zero. It continues to be a smooth countdown, and we're looking good for an on-time liftoff at 5:15 a. m. eastern time from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Coming up here at T -45 minutes, we'll be listening for the team to report their readiness for propellant load with a final go no go poll. Now, here on the ground in Hawthorne, mission control is staffed around the clock to monitor Dragon and the mission all the way from launch to docking. The same teams that you see right there on your screen today will hand off the mission from shift to shift, maintaining continuous awareness from liftoff through rendezvous and docking with the space station and all the way through splashdown. When the crew returns home inside that room, their mission control. There are six key positions on console today, and each of them are focused on a specific aspect of the mission.

The mission director is the person leading the room. They coordinate the team and make real time decisions to ensure mission success. The mission director, who you will hear referred to as MD when we talk to them on the next Dragon. SpaceX for your awareness ground is stepping into cycling the orbit tank isolation valves to equalize low flow pressure. And gravity.

All right. So that the comms there, I'll get to that person in just a moment. The mission director, who I was referring to, that individual also supports the Falcon launch director or LD during the countdown. Now, the voice that you just heard, is our crew, operations and resources engineer you see there on your screen today. Our we refer to that person as core throughout the broadcast.

Our core today is Mary Cooper, and she will be the primary voice talking to the crew while they were on board Dragon. On the way to space. Now, the remaining operators are focused on Dragon systems, including avionics, guidance and control software, propulsion, life support and coordination with ground support teams. And across the country, our Falcon nine and Dragon teams, along with key NASA launch personnel, are stationed in the Launch and Landing Control Center at SpaceX's hangar in Florida. Now, as we move inside the final hour, teams across both rooms will be reviewing data from their final checkouts in preparation for retraction of the crew access arm and the start of propellant loading.

But the teams at Hawthorne and Cape Canaveral aren't the only ones supporting today's mission. That's right, NASA has its own team at the Johnson Space Center in Mission Control in Houston, Texas, who will be checking in with us as we progress toward today's launch. This is where NASA's on a Schneider is located, who will share the latest updates from Mission Control, as they have been busy preparing the international Space Station for Dragon's arrival. The team over in Houston recently gave their go for launch, confirming the station and its systems are ready to receive the Dragon Freedom and the new crew following liftoff. Today's flight to the International Space Station will take about 34 hours, with Dragon flying autonomously the entire way.

Space you have to go for step five decimal one. When ready, report. Go for launch. So for five decimal one. And we will continue to hear communications from the ground to the crew inside Dragon freedom.

As we as they step through those procedures, we're. Now listen an hour away from today's launch. But tomorrow we will be looking ahead towards docking, which is targeted for February 14th at 3:15 p. m. eastern to the zenith port of Harmony.

And just like an autopilot on a commercial aircraft, the crew always has the ability to take manual control of the spacecraft if needed. Right. We are a team -58 minutes and 42 seconds and counting, and launching a rocket takes a considerable amount of teamwork during launch. SpaceX is monitoring the health of the vehicles from here in Hawthorne and Kennedy, and our recovery team is supporting out at sea NASA teams at Johnson Space Center in Texas are monitoring crew and mission rules. Once Dragon makes it to orbit, SpaceX and Johnson will work in tandem during Dragon's approach approach to station.

Johnson then takes the lead for station operations. So let's check in with NASA's on a Schneider at the Johnson Space Center to see how things are shaping up in Mission Control. Houston, how's it going on? How's it going on? Hey, thanks, Jesse, and welcome back to Mission Control Houston inside the International Space Station flight control room at the Johnson Space Center here in Houston, Texas.

We are, of course, here in the huge hub of human spaceflight for NASA. Currently on console is the orbit one team of flight controllers being led by Flight Director Garrett Hayden. And this team of flight directors recently pulled it go for launch, which means the International Space Station is ready for crew 12 to lift off and begin their journey to the orbiting laboratory. At the time of launch, the space station will be traveling 260 miles over the South Pacific east of New Zealand. Docking is targeted for tomorrow at 2:15 p.

m. central, 3:15 p. m. eastern, and in the home stretch of the rendezvous tomorrow, NASA and space flight controllers will enter into integrated operations during integrated operations, both flight control teams will conduct a series of go No-Go poles for Dragon Freedom as it closes end to docking to the zenith or space facing port of the station's Harmony module. Rotational missions like crew 12 help NASA to continue to maximize the important research and technology demonstrations made possible only in the International Space Station's unique microgravity environment.

The International Space Station is critical for NASA as it prepares for future low Earth orbit destinations, working alongside US commercial partners, NASA is enabling the development of sustainable destinations that will maintain America's presence in low Earth orbit and continue to support groundbreaking research. The space station as well, also helps us to better understand and overcome the challenges of long duration spaceflight, which will be necessary for a long term presence on the moon and crewed missions to deeper into the Solar System, including Mars. That's all for me here in Mission Control Houston for now. And with that, we will hand it back to the Kennedy Space Center with Steve Cecil off. Good morning everyone.

I am here with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. And, Mr. Administrator, you've talked a lot about, about low-Earth orbit research and its value, both in terms of research and in terms of crew training. What do you see for the International Space Station during your term? Well, first of all, I mean, the International Space Station is such a success story already.

I mean, you know, between the international cooperation it took to build it, you're looking at maybe one of the greatest engineering accomplishments, you know, in modern history, I mean, 25 years of continuous operation up there. I think the goal right now is to maximize the remaining life on it, to the greatest extent possible. So, you know, as our astronauts, prepare, to go up and undertake the mission that crew 12 is launching on right now. The idea is to get the highest potential science and research up there to, unlock and ignite an orbital economy so that someday we have lots of, you know, commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit. And also to demonstrate, a lot of the technology that we intend to use on lunar missions and a lunar base in the future.

A great example would be, it's a great testing ground for future of lunar, Eva suits to be able to exercise that on the space station. So we're going to make an awful lot, of use of the station, over the, over its remaining life. We're going to keep our crews extremely busy up there. And also, we're preparing this morning to launch crew 12 to low-Earth orbit, to the International Space Station and then going to send another crew around the moon in just a few weeks. Space agencies don't typically do those kind of missions right on top of each other.

What does that say about NASA? I'd say we're just getting started right now, but you're certainly seeing, American, space capabilities, being showcased. We we were able to bring crew 11 home early while pulling forward, crew 12, which is getting obviously getting ready to launch in, in less than an hour right now while we have crews out there testing, on crew, on, for Artemis two, we doing a series of kind of mini, wet dress rehearsal tests today. Make sure we give that, that vehicle the highest probability of success to get off the pad in, in, in, in early March. What a great problem to have multiple crew rated vehicles out on the pad right now.

I hope this becomes more commonplace to such an extent that maybe in the years ahead, having two vehicles ready to go to space with astronauts seems, like an easy day. Excellent. Well, there you have it. Words from our new NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman. And we're going to go back to Daryl Neil.

All right. Thank you very much, David. And Administrator Isaacman. Great to hear from him. As you know, we see this shot orbiting Launch Complex 40.

This is something that, our administrator was zipping around in his own F-5 just recently with an employee, and we're going to have an interview with that employee coming up later in the broadcast. But in the meantime, here's a closer look at the mission and what crew 12 will have to look forward to during their long duration stay aboard the International Space Station. The purpose of commercial crew missions is to have an opportunity to launch astronauts to low-Earth orbit and beyond from American soil. We want to have multiple ways of getting to and from the space station. The whole idea of, launching on a commercial spacecraft is so that NASA, ESA, and the others can focus on further exploration when crew 12 launches to the International Space Station.

Our goal is to integrate with a crew that's already up there and be able to operate and maintain the space station. While we're there, we're going to do all sorts of upgrades to the space station. We're going to maintain current experiments, start new experiments. We do research on the International Space Station because it provides a very unique and novel environment that we cannot replicate here on Earth. Every experiment that we've ever done here on Earth has this omnipresent factor, this gravitational vector.

So you can imagine if you remove a really large variable like that, there might be a wealth of anticipated outcomes. But there also may be some things that we don't know about. And that's the aspect of basic science that appeals to me so much, because the joy of science is these unexpected outcomes. The ultimate goal is to really understand how human body works in space, and how to build technologies that are more sustainable and more reliable for future exploration. All of the results from this research that we have can now be applied to an even more challenging environment, to understand more of what it's going to be like to live and work around the moon and hopefully soon on the surface of the moon.

The same is true for Mars. International cooperation is so important because space is really challenging. I think one of the great parts of the International Space Station is that we do it all together as a human race, as humanity pushing forward out into the stars. It's like the ultimate potluck dinner. Everyone brings its signature dish, its own expertise, and then we're sharing and gathering, sharing resources, sharing knowledge, sharing scientific experiments.

I think it's part of human nature that we use this exploration to make our lives better here at home, and then also satisfy that natural human curiosity to to see what's over that next hill. If we didn't have this within us, this inherent capacity to look around the corner to go further, we never would have even uncovered all of the continents or oceans on this planet. It pushes us to imagine more, to find solutions. It is about exploration. It is about science.

It is about all of these spinoffs and potential applications that we can bring back to everybody on Earth. Pushing the boundaries is kind of natural for me, and natural, I think for a lot of people, to want to see where we can go next and what is the next thing that we can develop. And for me, it's all about sharing this mission. It's not my mission or crew Twelve's mission. It's really a mission for all of humanity and civilization, for our entire planet.

Falcon nine is the first orbital class rocket capable of re flight. Together, Falcon nine and Falcon Heavy have completed more than 600 launches, and we have three flights without landings. Today's mission will actually be our first landing at Landing Zone 40 and Cape Canaveral, which is our newest recovery site. Now, while today's booster is on its second trip to space after most recently supporting a SpaceX Starlink mission, we're working towards qualifying our fleet of Falcon boosters and fairings to support 40 missions each. Reusability allows SpaceX to fly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of SpaceX access.

Our current Falcon nine flight leader has flown 32 flights, and across the fleet we've completed more than 500 free flights. Another innovation SpaceX has been working on is the entire vehicular space suits, or Eva suits, that astronauts wear during Dragon missions. The new Eva suit debuted during the crew 11 mission last year, worn by NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. The design incorporates changes developed for the players dawn missions, extravehicular activity or Eva suit, and will ultimately help us scale suit production and aid our ability to manufacture Eva suits in the numbers needed to make life Multi-Planetary. And for today's mission, all astronauts on board are wearing the new Ida suit and the crew, 12 astronauts are staying comfortable in their spacesuits right now as they prepare for liftoff.

Now, in 48 minutes from now, they'll remain suited up through the launch portion of today. And during dynamic events. But once on orbit, they will be able to get out of their spacesuits and get comfortable for the remainder of the ride uphill before getting suited back up shortly before docking to the International Space Station for their science and research mission. As a key stepping stone to NASA's Moon to Mars, efforts, SpaceX shares NASA's goal of returning to the moon, approaching the mission with the same determination that returned human spaceflight capability to America under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, and building a self growing city on the moon in the next ten years. To unlock that future, SpaceX's HLS team has completed dozens of milestones tied to developing systems, infrastructure and operations needed to safely land astronauts on the moon.

While many of SpaceX's remaining HLS milestones are tied to flight tests such as ship to ship propellant transfer demonstration, SpaceX is fabricating a flight capable Starship HLS cabin that will demonstrate high design maturity for the system, supporting humans on the moon, and provide a highly realistic training experience for future astronauts. With NASA's Artemis campaign, we are exploring the moon for scientific discovery, technology and advancement and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for sending humans to missions to Mars. The upcoming Artemis two mission will carry NASA astronauts. Read Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a ten day test flight mission around the moon to prove out key systems on the Orion spacecraft ahead of a future lunar landing mission. By leveraging NASA's unique and historic experience in lunar exploration paired with the speed and innovation of industry, the HLS program is providing the key lunar landing capability for Artemis to achieve a long term human presence in deep space.

NASA is working with SpaceX to develop the company's Starship human landing system for future missions. Cargo variants of the Starship lander will be capable of landing unparalleled capacity directly on the surface, including large pieces of equipment and infrastructure. SpaceX was founded to make life multiplanetary, and Starship has been designed from the very beginning to enable the exploration of other worlds, with it and alongside NASA. We look forward to inspiring all of humanity as that first permanent foothold is placed among the stars. It continues, and the team is ready for crew access, our retract, propellant load and launch for all operators, and MK and hangar X.

Both control rooms will go into lockdown at T -45 minutes, and will remain in that state until the launch escape system is disarmed. All operators are to remain at their console and maintain a sterile cockpit until indie confirmed successful disarming of the launch escape system following orbit insertion or propellant offload. In the event of a scrub for non-urgent No-Go conditions. Brief the CEO or LD and they will approve aborting the countdown. For urgent issues affecting the safety of the operation.

Operator shall call hold, hold, hold on. The countdown at launch. Control will abort the launch order sequence immediately and proceed into the launch abort order sequence at T minus 10s. Launch control of the hands off and relying on automated abort criteria for the remainder of the count. Operator shall advise the launch director whether structural breakup or fire is imminent or occurring for Dragon manual escape flight rules.

Launch control. You may proceed with arming the crew arm for movement. Correct. Proceeding to arm the current movement. And we did just hear that call out that there is a go for a crew arm to retract.

So we are going to be able to actually see that movement here on our screen here shortly. And have started. So as you're watching that on your screen, we also got a call out for propellant load. This is a milestone that we're going to be following along throughout the next 44 minutes or so before launch, and we'll keep you apprized of updates as that. That moves on.

And it continues to be an exciting time in human spaceflight, both for lunar missions and of course, a little closer to home. Speaking of, let's get back to today's mission to the International Space Station and check in with Kate on the status of the countdown. Kate. Thanks, Sandra. So we're now at just about 44 minutes from launch.

And as we heard moments ago, the SpaceX launch director has pulled the team for their readiness on both propellant loading and launch. This is basically the final, roll call for, the teams. Both the the NASA teams checked in. The launch director, the mission director. Each team confirmed that they are healthy and ready to proceed.

Now that poll is performed electronically. So we didn't actually hear any call outs from each person, but, it was all done electronically. Now, like we mentioned earlier, Falcon nine and Dragon teams, along with key NASA launch personnel are stationed at the Launch and Landing Control Center, at SpaceX access hangar in Florida. The launch director also checked in with arm retraction. Is complete.

All right. Good news there, letting us know that that crew access arm is now stowed into the launch position. That is one of the, final physical changes that we'll see to the pad. Now, the launch director also checked in with the Dragon mission director, who we hear, referred to as MD, as well as the NASA operations manager, to confirm alignment, across SpaceX and NASA before moving forward. So right now, the crew continues to be seated comfortably inside Dragon.

That crew access arm has been stowed. Next up will be a, arming the launch escape system to prepare the spacecraft's emergency systems before departure. Once the launch director gives, the, What we saw before was the launch director giving the go ahead for that crew access arm. And so up next is will be the basics. You have a go for step six decimal, three closed visors, an arm launch escape system.

Dragon copies. We're ready to close visors. And on the launch of safe system. All right. Words.

They're letting us know that the crew is now putting their visors down as we can see them doing. That's important. As we move into more dynamic operations for the vehicles at the pad. And the launch escape system will be armed after, they shotgun visors our clothes. We're ready to send the command space X copies.

You have a go to arm the launch escape system. So arming the launch escape system torpedo is an important step that we execute prior to starting propellant loading. That will begin in less than ten minutes. That'll happen at t -35 minutes. Here.

And, about six minutes from now. So, in the meantime, let's check back in with our friends at Kennedy, Daryl and Doug. How is it over in Florida? Beautiful. Here in Florida.

Caden. Thank you. I'm here with Doug Wheelock, NASA astronaut, aka wheels. Give it up on his verified armed. Giving us the commentary.

And we just heard a a call out following up on what Kate was saying, that the launch escape system is armed. It's a very dynamic time as we prepare to load propellant aboard Falcon nine. Absolutely. This is a critical time in the flow, of course. And, we want to make sure that Launch Escape System is armed.

So the crew has a way to swiftly get off the, off the pad if need be. And of course, you trained for this, wheels. This is not something that is, you know, just an easy ride. I mean, if that thing were did need to pull off, off the top of that rocket's going to come up there with a lot of G-Force you had mentioned. Like, what is the time when the crew really starts to tighten up and when that access arm swings away that it starts to get real.

It's it's game time now. And so, things, get a little less, jovial inside and, and people have their game face on, and, and they're getting ready to march through these sequences, talk us through kind of what you, you feel and experience in this moment. In your experience. You launched on STS 120, space shuttle. And then you also launched on a Soyuz, from Kazakhstan.

What's the experience? What's the mood inside the capsule? Inside spacecraft? You could begin to see and hear and feel vibrations in the vehicle as valves open and close, for tanking and things like that. Gimbal checks and and various, pressurization of, of, the dracos on the side of the, underside of the, spacecraft right there close to your head.

You can hear those. Yeah, you could hear those things. You could feel vibration. And so, you could feel sort of the spacecraft is coming to life, you know, the rocket is coming to life. And, and so, it gets real pretty quick.

Our next major milestone that we're awaiting is the, loading of propellant. And this is happening at t -35 minutes. This is, standard for Space-X. This is when they begin a automated sequence that will tank both the first stage and the second stage with propellants. They use our one, as their main fuel and of course, liquid oxygen as the oxidizer.

And, once that starts kicking into gear, that, sets forth, that automated system that takes us all the way to t0. Yeah. So you'll be able to see these are highly chilled, propellants that will go into the rocket. And so you'll begin to see, clouds forming, around the rocket as the, as the, as it fills with fuel and propellant and, and oxidizer and, you'll be able to kind of tell how full the rocket is getting as it kind of marches up the, the stack. And so then you'll eventually see venting as well.

And that's perfectly normal. That's the, that's the dragon and the rocket, Falcon nine rocket coming to life. And we can already see some of the venting of, that from the liquid oxygen tanks that are on the ground there as, the wind swirls around. We've got great weather for launch today. 95% go from our launch weather officer Brian Cizik, who is handling the mission weather-wise for today.

And you're also looking at what is the new home for commercial crew launches Launch Complex 40 at the, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be the designated place for all commercial crew launches to go from. Unless there's something the pad is needed for something else, and there's a conflict. They could go back to pad 39, where commercial crew started with anything, so started propellant load. Expect loud venting.

There's some of the noises you were talking about. And so they're saying, hey, you know, beware. But, just to finish the thought there, 39 A it'll serve as now a backup launch pad for commercial crew. Absolutely. It's very exciting to bring these new pads to life.

And we're getting very busy. And as, as, Administrator Isaac Bennett said it's, it's a great time to be in the space business. So really wonderful to be here on the Space Coast and, see these, pads coming to life. Crew 12 strapped inside Dragon freedom currently getting ready for its fifth flight, following crew for axiom two and three and crew nine. It'll be riding on booster Falcon nine, of course, 1101 to its second flight.

Previously, this booster flew on a Starlink flight not too long ago. Doug. And this is something that SpaceX, you know, champions well, in their program and that's the reuse of their boosters. It's so wonderful to see the reuse of these things. I, I heard, them speak of the they're trying to certify for 40 launches on these, reusable pieces, which is just amazing.

It just really the the cost savings and also the reusability, at just the, the time savings as well to turnaround, flights. It's really wonderful advancement in our technology and quick turnaround as well as that mission was launched in January of this year. So just on the 4th of January, you know, just a month and a half ago, that's a pretty quick turnaround, pretty fast. Absolutely. And we are counting down.

It feels like pretty quickly down to the kick off of the propellant load, T -35 minutes. We're just a few seconds away from listening in to this critical milestone on our countdown to liftoff at five, 15 and 55 seconds Am Eastern time. And the crew right now has started. You heard the propellant loaded the started, and, the crew is reviewing their procedures, probably in their mind, their steps. We we go through boundaries on acid.

And so they're no doubt reviewing those things in their mind as well to prepare for what they should hear, what they should feel. And then their actions, if they don't, see, see or hear those things, commander. That's right. Commander Jessica Meir walking her crew through those moments, no doubt, as she, leads them on their mission to the International Space Station. Of course, she has a special place in our hearts as she was a co-commentator in your current role.

For crew seven and crew ten, she was part of the launch broadcasts. And so, she did those before she went up on the SpaceX Falcon nine and, Dragon. So she got to see all of this many times. Of course, she's well trained, but, she's also saw it from how it looks to the audience out there in the world. And she set the bar way too high for me there.

Also, you're doing a fantastic job. Wheels. I couldn't be more happy to have you with me here today as we countdown and head back out to Hawthorne, California. Thanks, Daryl. Now, as we heard the call out earlier, propellant loading of both P one.

That's that rocket grade kerosene as well as super chilled liquid oxygen. Boat loading for those began at T -35 minutes. Everything is looking good for both Falcon nine and Dragon at the moment. Teams are working. No major issues.

The range is green and weather is looking awesome. Our, percent, a violation of launch requirements for the weather. Those are the rules that we have to follow in order to make sure that, we're able to launch. We only have a 5% chance of violating those rules. So that's pretty good for Florida.

Now, soon, we'll hear the SpaceX launch director inform the crew when the loading of cryogenic helium will begin. We'll first see that occur on stage one at t -30 minutes. And then stage two will begin its cryogenic helium loading about four minutes later. Now stage two, our p loading should wrap up at T -20 minutes and 30s. And then as we approach T -16 minutes and 30s, we'll hear the call out that stage two liquid oxygen loading has begun.

We do that as late as possible in the count, to make sure that that liquid oxygen can stay as cold as possible. Now, by the time Falcon nine is ready for liftoff, we will have loaded nearly 1 million pounds of propellant onto the vehicle. That's roughly the weight of a large commercial airliner at maximum takeoff weight. Today's mission has an instantaneous launch window, which means that there is one exact second when Falcon nine must lift off to properly target the space station. That is different from many satellite missions, where the launch window can last several minutes or hours, and the spacecraft can adjust its orbit after launch.

If a hold is called, after this point, now that we've gotten into our propellant loading, we will have to scrub for today and target our next backup opportunity, which is most likely going to be Sunday, around the same time. This is when the Earth's rotation will bring the launch site back into alignment with the station's orbit, while also having the, correct weather roll following, that we need. So for now, Jesse is going to preview West Coast recovery operations for us. Thanks, Kate. Now we are at T -31 minutes and counting and getting closer to getting our crew, 12 crew astronauts out into space.

Now, once the mission is complete and it's time for the crew to return back to Earth, Dragon will target one crew. Healer moving. Dragon will target one of several Pacific splashdown zones supported by SpaceX. Those splashdown locations are off the coast of California near Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego. The recovery vessel Shannon is staged out of Long Beach and ready to support operations.

When Dragon returns. Having multiple recovery sites gives teams flexibility, increasing the chances of landing on the planned day and reducing the likelihood of waving off a return due to weather. So that's a look way into the future when our crew returns back to Earth. But let's rewind a bit to when we had a chance to hear Crew Twelve's thoughts about the spacecraft taking them up to space. Today.

When I first go into a cockpit, I first want to understand what language this cockpit speaks. I've spent a ton of hours in cockpits and I can tell every cockpit has its own personality. All aircraft and all spacecraft are fundamentally tools. We use them to accomplish a mission. We have a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320 that takes us from point A to point B to see our families.

Right? Can't land a 737 on an aircraft carrier, and you can't put 200 people in an F-18. So you need to design the aircraft or spacecraft to the mission. The Dragon model was really more for not completely autonomous vehicle with, you know, the future implication of having nonprofessional astronauts flying in this vehicle so really designed for a different type of outcome. And that makes this vehicle much more autonomous.

There's less real kind of stick and rudder type action, you know, in terms of flying an aircraft. The computer makes me a better pilot because it can do things that I can't do, and that frees me up to do the things that only I can do. You can't fly, Dragon without the computer, but you also cannot fly Dragon without 10,000 people down here on the ground. The people in the control room, the people that built it here in Hawthorne, in Houston, and around the world. We are just that very tiny tip of the spear of the thousands, really, tens of thousands of people that support not only support, but make it possible to get us up to the International Space Station and back safely.

It's a it's a pretty awesome expression of teamwork. Since Administrator Jared Isaacman took over at NASA, he's been giving special flights to employees who stand out in their area and are exceptional in many ways in his own F-5. And so now joining us is one of those employees he's with. NASA is Steven Hyslop, who is with the Grounded Missions operation Manager, Daniel Forrestal. Steven.

Hey, thank you, Daryl. We are here with Daniel Forrestal. He is the, manager for ground operations and and mission operations, for commercial crew program. And, Daniel, one of your tasks, we're this is the second crewed launch from Space Launch Complex 40 over on Cape Side. One of your tasks was getting Space Launch 40 ready for human rated missions.

What went into that work? Yeah. That's right. So Space-X has been launching rockets from 40 for years before we man rated it. And so we had to do a lot of hardware upgrades.

We had to add a crew access to our crew access arm. We had to make sure we had emergency egress systems in place for the crew. And then not just the technical. We had to make sure that the operations were good. It looked similar launching from 39 and 40, but we had to make sure that the the operations were seamless and that, we had everything ready to go to get the crew up and down the tower and get the launch off.

Excellent. And while you were doing that for crew 12, you also had to keep in the back of your mind that Artemis two was making its mission, preparations for its flight around the moon. You share resources in different ways. And what went into some of the work to do? Conflict the preparations for those, and make sure everybody had the resources that they need.

Yeah, absolutely. So this is something that we've been working on, since really the end of last summer when we saw that their launch windows were lining up together. It's really unprecedented. We had never had a time with two manned rockets of, ready to go at the same time. And so just making sure that, resources from propellants to people who support both launches to the astronaut crew quarters where we got the crews in quarantine together, potentially, we had to take it step by step, make sure that, we were ready to go.

And we had to run a different iterations depending on who went first and in what order and what timeline and how much time separated the two missions. It was, good problem to have. It was a complex problem. But when I hope that we get to do a lot here as the spaceport, gets busier in the future. Definitely, definitely in Ukraine.

Helium event shortly speculating. And as Daryl was suggesting, you were one of the first NASA employees to take a reward flight, a reward for the service that you've put in, the expertise that you provide. And you flew with Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator, in his supersonic fives. What was that day like? I'd imagine you got a few jealous emails.

Oh, yeah. It was incredible. I've gotten, lucky enough to do a lot of really cool things here at NASA. Flying in a, a fighter jet was never on my list. But, man, seeing, Kennedy Space Center from the air was just, a magnificent sight.

And then they took us out over the water, and we did acrobatics, and it was like a souped up roller coaster out there. And so it was just a just an incredible experience was hanging on the whole time. And, really honored to be able to be selected to do that and hopefully something that a lot of people get that the chance to do here in the future. Excellent. Well, congratulations for that.

We are going to head back to, head back to Daryl. And in the countdown for crew 12. All right. Thank you, Steven. And what Daniel didn't say, but he told me is it took him a day to reorient himself because his vestibular system.

Right. You know, this is a pilot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's it is like a roller coaster. And, yeah, he it could take a little bit to get your, get your legs back underneath.

Yeah, absolutely. While crew 12 is getting ready to jump in full strength and dive into a full slate of science aboard the International Space Station, here are just a few of the investigations they'll be working on. Mini. This is a compact system designed to produce intravenous saline from drinkable water. The goal on demand IV fluids for medical care, a critical capability for future long duration missions far from Earth.

And then there's video six that you see here. This research examines how spaceflight affects the relationship between plants and nitrogen fixing microbes. What scientists learn here could help improve food production not just in orbit, but also for future missions to the moon and eventually Mars. And speaking of moon missions over at nearby Launch Complex 39 B well, there it is. Four astronauts are expected to lift off on NASA's Space Launch System rocket for a ten day journey around the moon.

Launch for Artemis two is currently scheduled for no earlier than March 6th. Launch window opens at 8:29 p. m. Eastern time. Actually, we know this to be in early March.

That date, of course, will depend on what happens with the latest wet dress. Last month, the Artemis two rocket made a major move, rolling from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39 B for the first time. The 4. 2 mile journey to the pad took about 12 hours as the moon rocket inched into position. There you see the fire in room one and the team, they're conducting the operation.

A few weeks ago, the teams conducted a wet dress rehearsal, a full practice countdown that loads the rocket with real cryogenic propellant. More than 700,000 gallons, and all the countdown move through most of terminal count until a hydrogen leak around the five minute mark triggered a cut off the vehicle was safely d tanked, the seals were replaced, those responsible for the leak and another wet dress rehearsal will be scheduled soon. Orion will carry Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Cook, along with Canadian astronaut astronaut Jeremy Hansen around the moon and back and wheels. You are intimately involved with where this Artemis program is going, of course, and that is landing on the moon as we're looking live at the rocket that will take those astronauts around the moon and in upcoming missions, land on the moon. As we mentioned at the top of the broadcast, you're helping train the next generation of astronauts to be able to land on the moon.

So what is going on? Talk about that challenge and where we're at right now. So, of course, our mission back to the moon is going to require we went back to the Apollo, archives, and we dug out, we talked to several Apollo astronauts, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt. Wow. The biggest, help to our team so far.

Just trying to replicate, what they did and build on that. So we're we're learning how to fly helicopters, and so we could do vertical landings and takeoffs. And so to kind of, kind of put that into the muscle memory of our pilots, we're also going to have motion based simulation, that will be lunar simulation. And then you'll be seeing coming on the on the near horizon, a lunar lander training vehicle as well, a vehicle that can replicate lunar dynamics in flight. So we're very excited about our training strategy.

Getting back to the moon, I love and I'm jealous that you got to tap into the Apollo guys in order to help this. And there's a beautiful shot of the moon from our fine production crew here at the Kennedy Space Center that is manning all these beautiful views that you're looking at today, including their at Launch Complex 39 B for more Artemis two updates, just scan the QR code that is now at the bottom of your screen. It's, going to take you to a website which is NASA. gov forward slash. Artemus, you'll have all the updates and information that you need to to see to understand the mission and follow it closely.

All right. Right now, let's send it back to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, for the latest update. There. Thanks, Daryl. And we did just hear that call out that our rp1 on stage two is completely full.

So great news. You're continuing to see some clouds of condensation build up around the rocket there. That is completely expected and and normal as part of this fueling process. The Falcon nine rocket supporting today's crew 12 launch that you see on your screen, right there is a two stage rocket designed for the reliable and safe transportation of satellites, cargo and people, which is the goal of NASA's Commercial Crew program at the top of Falcon nine today, the crew is sitting inside Dragon Freedom. There are currently five Dragon spacecraft supporting human spaceflight missions.

That's endeavor, resilience, endurance, freedom, and our fifth and final Dragon Grace, which launched the axiom for mission 4 in 2025. Designed with safety as the highest priority, Dragon is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from Earth orbit and Dragon has 16 Draco thrusters that can be used in space to help navigate the spacecraft to its destination, each providing 90 pounds of force that doesn't include the eight Superdraco thrusters used for an abort, which are no longer active. Once the crew is in orbit. To date, Dragon has been to orbit 55 times, including 49 trips to the International Space Station, both cargo and crew missions, and has completed 19 human spaceflight missions. Overall, Dragon is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the orbiting lab, having flown 300,000 pounds of cargo and more than a thousand experiments to space, as well as 74 crew members representing 20 countries.

Our versatile Dragon spacecraft can autonomously dock with the International Space Station when outfitted with a docking adapter, which is one of three Dragon configurations, and how it's currently configured for today's flight. Right now, Dragon is Falcon nine. Right below Dragon is Falcon nine second stage, which houses a single Merlin vacuum engine or M back engine, and then below the second stage is the black carbon fiber enter stage, and inside of that is where the engine is located. The inner stage connects the two stages and houses the center pusher that allows the first and second stage to separate during flight. Below that, we have the first stage or booster, which when fully loaded, holds about 1 million pounds of liquid oxygen and one.

The first stage makes up the base for update. Falcon nine Dragon and whether remain go. We're tracking no holds against launch today. Johns Hopkins that's great news. And you just heard it.

They are a call to the crew inside Dragon Freedom that everything continues to progress well and look good for a launch today. Now 17 minutes and 19 seconds away. Now the the first stage makes up the bottom two thirds of the vehicle and has nine Merlin M 1D engines at the bottom, which generate more than 1. 7 million pounds of thrust. That to reach orbit, the vehicle needs to go fast, hitting an orbital velocity of about 28,000km/h just to keep from falling back to Earth.

Now that's fast enough to lap the Earth in about 90 minutes. About 2. 5 minutes into flight, the first stage will separate and make its way back to Earth. Meanwhile, Dragon separates from the second stage and continues its roughly 34 hour journey to the space station. Now it is early morning out there, but today's booster is heading back to our newest recovery.

LOX load is starting. Our booster is heading back to our newest recovery site. Our landing zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which you can see the graphic there on the screen. It's highlighting the landing zone next to the pad. There.

This will be our first landing at this new site. And the booster second time returning back to Earth with t0 coming up in about 16 minutes. Our teams are doing a series of system checks to ensure Dragon and Falcon nine are ready. Let's check in with Kate on that countdown. Thank you.

Thanks, Sandra. Overall, it's been a clean march to launch this morning and we are still on track for and On-Time launch now. The countdown is the framework that syncs all teams up, and we're monitoring lots of different factors as we get closer to liftoff. If everything goes as expected, we'll see Falcon take to the sky at 5:15 a. m.

eastern or 2:15 a. m. Pacific, and several minutes later, we'll see our very first Falcon nine landing at LC 40, our new landing zone, located about 1000ft away from tonight's launch pad. Both Dragon and Falcon nine continue to be healthy, and the teams continue to report no issues on either vehicle, just moments there. We saw the crew sitting comfortably inside Dragon.

Now we wrapped up stage two. Our loading at T -20 minutes and stage two liquid oxygen or LOX. Loading began. Just a couple minutes ago. T -16 minutes and 30s earlier, we heard the call out that the launch escape system was armed.

That system is designed to propel Dragon away from Falcon nine. In the unlikely event of an emergency during launch, it simply provides a path to safety for the crew. The Eastern Range, which is monitoring and keep out zones, among other key flight requirements, also continues to report no issues and our goal to support today's launch. As for the weather, the thing we always, monitor for our launches, we're tracking a 5% chance of launch weather constraints, otherwise known as 95%. Good for our target liftoff time.

So, all in all, we are go for launch this morning. So let's toss it back over to Anna for a status update from Houston. Hey. Thanks, Kate. Back here in the International Space Station flight control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Teams continue to work around the clock to monitor activities support the orbital outpost. Leading the team inside the room is Flight Director Garrett Hayne and the NASA team here in Mission Control Houston. The SpaceX team in Hawthorne, California, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station will track the autonomous docking of Dragon Freedom when they enter what is known as joint operations. This will happen when the spacecraft enters what is known as the approach ellipsoid. The approach ellipsoid is an invisible boundary stretching four by two by two kilometers around the space station that helps us monitor all arriving and departing spacecraft.

It is essentially the neighborhood of the space station. Once docked, crew members in both Dragon and aboard the space station will pressurize the area between the Dragon hatch and the space station hatch, known as the vestibule. They will then perform a series of leak checks, and then work to open the hatches on both the space station and the dragon. Once the hatches are open, crew 12 will float into the station to begin their long duration stay. Following today's launch, we are tracking a targeted docking at approximately 2:15 p.

m. central, 3:15 p. m. Eastern on Saturday, January 14th, about an hour and a half after docking. We do anticipate that the hatches will be opened and when they enter the orbital outpost, crew 12 will be greeted by the rest of their expedition 74 crew and will come together for a brief welcoming ceremony.

For now, that's all from us here in Mission Control Houston, as the anticipation continues to build for a launch in just under 15 minutes. How's it looking on the Space Coast, Daryl? It's looking great here, where 95% go. We have beautiful clear skies and everything remains on track. No constraints.

As we enter the final ten minutes and wheels, I want to turn to you now. As a former International Space Station commander, you know what it means to hand over a vehicle, a crew, and a station to the next generation of fliers. You also know that this crew, although they know the science, are working on, might end up working on some things they don't even know that they might encounter. Sure. Yeah.

We are, I flew with Shannon Walker, who I believe is listening today. She, she said it's awesome. She's a brilliant scientist. I am not. And so I was doing some science.

We were about two weeks into a six month mission, and then I was working my science, and Shannon came to me. She said, the party's broken. Oh, and so we had a couple seconds of mini panic attack. And then she said, if you do, if you fix the party, I'll do all of your science for the rest of the day. I thought, that is such a deal.

Is that a trade off? So we, yeah. So I it took me, but it took me about 90 minutes. But we fixed that party, and I found out that if you could fix the party on a spaceship, your Guardians of the Galaxy wheels the plumber to the rescue. Really quickly, we're going to hear some final words from, Jessica Amir, the commander, before they lift off.

She's got these words composed. Perfect. Yeah. She's amazing. We're looking forward to hearing that.

And so with just about 11 minutes to go, we'll send it back to Hawthorne for the final steps of today's Dragon. SpaceX confirm crew displays are configured for launch. Displays are configured for launch. We copy from the entire SpaceX team. It's been a pleasure working together.

Good luck and Godspeed. Crew 12. Enjoy the ride. In a few moments, we will leave the ground, but not the people who brought us here. This mission is a result of years of dedication, preparation and trust to the teams of muscle and SpaceX, Musk, cosmos, and CSA.

Your work stands on this pad with us over the past of us. Every decision has led to this moment. Thank you for your tireless dedication and attention to detail. We launch not as individuals, but as representatives of something much larger. We carry the flags of our companies and our space agencies, but most importantly, we carry humanity in terms of curiosity and desire to explore.

Looking around me, I see diversity of backgrounds and experiences with me in this topic and on the teams supporting us around the planet. It is clear that when we work together, we can accomplish extraordinary things and stand on the shoulders of giants. This expression is shaped through generations who dared to imagine beyond what they could touch, who turned the role into knowledge, and who left behind a foundation strong enough to push further. These giants also include a family of friends and loved ones. You share the weight of this journey in ways that few others see and remind us that nobody reaches the horizon alone.

When we left off that Earth from orbit, it will be your faces, your voices, and your sacrifices that travel with us. No. 12 is ready. We are honored to represent our agencies, our nation and the shared human desire to explore, to look up, to ask what lies beyond and to go together. We carry this responsibility with humility and with our over the top.

In human spaceflight. Passion isn't a coincidence. It's a choice. Whether you're welding hardware, programing software or piloting a spacecraft. Every one of us chose the difficult path that got us here today.

In this moment, interacting with such a dedicated team is the best part of my job, and I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the drive you bring to this program every single day over to serve. Thanks, tech, for the compliment to what my crewmates said. I wanted to say how important international cooperation is. As humanity, we can achieve great things when nations are working together. The International Space Station is a good example of a huge international achievement that just celebrated 25 years of continuous presence.

We as humanity can be proud of achieving this together. I'll hand it over to Andres. So guys, engage by offering highly, highly publicly. And some incredible, beautiful, inspiring words from our crew. 12 crew inside of Dragon freedom now approaching.

Seven minutes to lift off. That was wonderful to hear. And Jill has started. It will be about a nine minute ride to orbit, which is around the time of second stage cut off today, Dragon and the second stage will continue to coast for a few minutes after that. Prior to separation and on the ride uphill, we will hear a variety of call outs on performance as we approach the, in orbit portion into the final countdown, but also hear some call outs for, various abort zones for both the first and second stage.

So we'll be sharing more about those abort zones as we get closer. But just a quick check in with our fueling here. Our P1 is at 100% full, LOX is at 92% rpm. One load is complete. Oh, and that call out just right on time.

Stage one is complete as well. Yeah, that. The next milestone coming up will be at t -five minutes. And that'll be when Dragon will transition to configure for terminal count. That's basically when Dragon will go on.

Internal power. And we're coming up on that milestone in about 30s from now. And then following that milestone, we will begin to get ready for strong back or the transporter erector a t e to recline away from the vehicle. And that'll begin just about 30s. After that, T minus five over nine tanks will begin pressurizing for strong back.

Retract. Dragon is configured for terminal count. And there's that call out for Dragon configuring for terminal count as well. As we heard Falcon nine propellant tanks pressurizing for that strong back retraction. So with the T retraction, the clamp arms, which you can see on your screen that's just below, the Dragon vehicle there, at the top of the second stage, those will begin has started.

And now this process is going to begin. The clamp arms are going to open up. Once they are fully open, then the T, which is that structure right next to the vehicle that you see on the right side that will begin to remove, move slowly away from the vehicle. And there you can see on your screen that those clamp arms are starting to open up. Now.

So we'll reach full recline by t -three minutes and 40s. And the T rolls Falcon nine out to the pad, raises it vertical and stays connected through the final seconds before liftoff. It provides fuel, power, telemetry, and command connections between ground systems and the vehicle. And the next major milestone that we are awaiting this morning is that stage one LOX load is complete. Propellant is loaded late in the countdown, which is intentional because that colder propellant is denser, and denser propellant means more performance out of the same tanks.

The colder it is, the more mass you can move before any of that propellant flows, though, the plumbing and engines are chilled down. This prevents thermal shock and boil off when the ultracold liquid starts moving. You may hear that referred to as engine chill loading wraps in two steps. The first stage finishes around T-minus three minutes. We'll hear that call out here any second.

And the second stage finishes about a minute later. And you are seeing those white clouds of vapor on page one. LOX load is complete right on time. As expected. Stage one LOX load is complete and you are seeing those white, vapor clouds on your screen.

This is normal and will continue as we do get closer to launch. Yeah, and that call that was for Dragon is in terminal count and his own internal power. That call that was for stage one liquid oxygen loading completion. But stage two is still actually loading that cold liquid oxygen, which will wrap up at the T -two minute mark in just about 25 seconds from now. Once liquid oxygen is complete, that'll mean that there is 1 million pounds of propellant loaded on Falcon nine.

And that includes our rp1, a highly refined kerosene and liquid oxygen, which is super chilled to over 300 degrees below zero. Stage two LOX load is complete and great call out. Stage two liquid oxygen loading is complete. That means that Falcon nine is fully loaded with propellants. Dragon is an auto idle.

Now get gas close. Close. Those will start in five seconds. Expect to load that thing. Great.

Glass gas. Close out. Has also begun just now, so we're isolating all the feed lines for the different gas systems from the Falcon nine rocket. Those gases will then get vented overboard through umbilical holes and the strong back. And actually, if you listen closely, you can hear some of that venting from the vehicle.

Obviously rockets are very loud and sound can impart pressure loads back on the rocket itself. A ton of water absorbs and prevents the sound from hitting the structure and reverberating back onto the vehicle is armed, and Falcon nine is a start up and great timing. Countdown. Dragon's flight computer is now in countdown and configured for launch. Now less than one minute away from the launch of crew 12, go for launch.

Great call out there. Go for launch at the time of launch. Space station we are go for launch. At the time of launch, Space Station will be flying 260 miles over the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. Space says go crews, go!

Let's watch this. Falcon nine takes crew 12 out into space. T -15 seconds. T minus ten 987654321. Ignition and liftoff.

Go, Falcon! Go! Dragon and Godspeed. Crew 12 and liftoff! Freedom flies!

Bound for the International Space Station. 1. 7 million pounds of thrust now pulling Falcon nine crew. 12 vehicle is pitching downrange, and all nine Merlin vehicles have lit. We're getting good call outs on the first stage.

Performance and propulsion so far. Eight plus 30s into the crew 12 mission on board Dragon and Falcon nine vehicle is going to its rubber down in preparation for Max-Q. That's the largest structural load of the vehicle we'll see on ascent power and telemetry. Now I'd call out stage one, throttle down. There's that.

Call out for stage one. Throttle down, pastor Max-Q, in a few seconds here, Max-Q. Great news. We have passed through Max-Q. Vehicles.

Supersonic. That call out that the vehicle is supersonic means it's traveling faster than the speed of sound. Throttle up. Stage one. Now throttling up.

One. Bravo. That call out for one Bravo means we're in the second and final abort mode for the first stage. Continuing to get good performance, the crew is now already pulling over two GS. Next up, we'll have a couple events happening, all happening in rapid success succession.

First is that engine chill on the second stage and back engine, and then we'll have Meco or main engine cutoff, where the nine engines on the first stage will cut off ahead of the first and second stages separating from one another, then the single Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will ignite, continuing to carry crew 12 to orbit while the first stage begins its journey back to Earth. The nine Merlin engines are starting to roll down and standing by for Meco or main engine. Stage one total down. There's that call out, and in just a few seconds here we will have Meco stage separation. Stage one flip maneuver for the booster to make its way back to Earth X1, and the start of the boost back burn.

Pico two Alpha copy two Alpha stage separation confirmed. And separation. And incredible views. We've had Mico stage separation. You can see that booster coming back down to earth and that and back ignition.

That Mach engine has ignited, which you can see clearly there on your screen. And the Dragon spacecraft with crew 12 is still attached to the Falcon nine second stage. The next milestone that we have coming up will be the start of the stage one booster back burn. And that burn is the first of three burns that stage one has to help it return back to Earth. We are now three minutes and 30s into today's flight of crew 12.

The second stage of the lone Merlin engine has lit and continues to burn. As you can see on your screen, stage two continues to be performing well with a good trajectory and will continuing, and we'll continue firing until we reach about eight minutes into today's flight. And we're getting our first view nominal trajectory, getting good call outs of the trajectory, as well as our first view of the crew inside freedom. A few minutes remaining in this burn before a couple of these astronauts will experience weightlessness for the first time. The crew's glow did dip right when we hit that Meco or main engine cutoff event, and now it's going to continue to build up again until the second stage shuts down.

Everything's still continuing to go well now. Four minutes and 45 seconds into today's launch of crew 12. Second space. Nominal trajectory. The second stage will continue to fire with nominal until close to nine minutes into the flight, which will accelerate Dragon to more than 17,000mph and place our crew in orbit.

This Merlin vacuum engine can produce over 220,000 pounds of thrust in the vacuum of space. Meanwhile, the first stage booster is now on its way back to landing zone 40. Stage one is coasting. Has already coasted apogee and the grid fins are helping, to guide it back to Earth. And we've already had the boost back burn.

So the next event coming up will be the entry burn. That will be three of those nine and 1D engines reigniting, and that helps slow the vehicle down as it's reentering the Earth's atmosphere. Once that entry burn concludes, we use the the direct SpaceX nominal trajectory, use a drag from the atmosphere to help slow the vehicle down until landing, and copy. And that entry burn is coming up in just about 20s from now. Falcon nine does have a heat shield that is designed to protect the engines and the vehicle from that combined thermal and aerodynamic loading during max entry Q, which is the moment of max stress on the vehicle during entry.

Stage one entry burn startup. And you've heard that call out that entry burn has begun. Stage one entry burn shutdown. And the entry burn has concluded for the first stage. Vehicle two of three burns done.

Next up will be the landing burn for the first stage. Dragon SpaceX nominal trajectory. And everything. Dragon. Copy.

Everything continue to be nominal. We're about 20s away or so from that landing burn. Starting up on the first stage, it will be a single center E9 engine that ignites stage one transonic and help slow the vehicle down just in time to touchdown for landing at our newest landing zone. Landing zone 40. We have just a couple of minutes.

To appear to scene and landing burn has begun. Let's watch as it touches down. Stage and convert. And what an excellent view of Falcon nine. Touching down for the very first time at Landing zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Congratulations! That is so exciting to see. And on your screen you also have a great view of the second stage, continuing to fire that burn is going to last for just about another minute, and then we'll have Seco or second engine cutoff, which will occur where the lone Merlin vacuum engine cuts off and stops firing. Stage twos and terminal guidance. Once that happens, the second stage will continue to coast for about three minutes while still attached to Dragon, until dragon is then commanded to separate.

At this point, Dragon will be flying free with crew 12 on board and in Earth's orbit for them. Copy. Shannon and that call out for Shannon refers to Shannon Ireland and is our final abort zone in the second stage. Continuing to get good performance. After this second stage shut down there, we have that call out for Seco and engine shutdown.

All right. Dragon SpaceX, we have a nominal orbit insertion. That is great news here, Gavin. Copy is nominal insertion. Wonderful ride.

Here in the following second stage, disarmed. You heard that. Call out that the crew is in a nominal or as expected orbit. So again we're going to continue to coast for a few minutes after our second to allow those rates in motion from the burn to settle out. There are some small reaction thrusters on the upper part of the second stage that can be used to counteract any residual motion, basically making sure that we're in a stable coast before Dragon separates from Falcon, which will happen.

Oh, as you see on your screen, right on time. Dragon now flying free Dragon separation confirmed. From what a great view with the crew. 12 crew on board. Dragon Freedom separating from Falcon nine.

Second stage. Dragon freedom. Chief engineer. Jessica. Check.

Sophie. Andre, welcome to orbit on behalf of the entire Falcon team, we thank you for flying with Falcon nine. Dragon will take you from here over to our launch director for a few words. It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day. Jessica.

Jack. Sophie. Andre, it's been a pleasure training with you and preparing for your flight for the entire Falcon launch team. Thank you. Good luck and Godspeed to the crew of Freedom.

Thank you team. It was quite a ride. Thank you. SpaceX, Falcon nine and massive team. We have left the Earth, but the Earth has not lost us.

When we came to our planet from above, it is immediately clear that everything is interconnected. The vast oceans, the continuous landmasses and all that they can do. We are one humankind here on our shared home. So this becomes self evident of astronauts peering down from above. And it's a sentiment that would serve us well to remember back on the ground, we see the same tenuous band of the mountain sphere solely responsible for supporting all life on this planet, and we know that it is utterly unique, fragile, and must be protected.

So those supporting and watching our journey, please know that your spirit travels with us, stitched into the very fabric of all that we do. We hope that our arrival in space reminds all of you that dreams truly can become reality given dedication, perseverance, and yes, a bit of luck along the way. Crew 12 is grateful and ready for the journey ahead. We're on our way up this. Central Avenue.

Thank you. Pass Dragon. Freedom. Let's see. As you were meeting.

This is camera. Both of stuff. My. Fearless. My.

This gives me great news for mosquito control of the ships of the evening. It's a fun night. I love them. Well, my grandmother in North Carolina. If I need to do this, does the commercial to go with it, because that supports the movement.

Because I should not be here. It's this money. See what you keep that this is besides the business. Trump. We just need to get into this.

I can't believe is the forces still looted pretty much in some way proposing to my blood this year. Let's see what it would give. Cool dragon freedom. Yes. So I mean.

Thanks to the flight control, engineering, manufacturing and ground support teams around the world, successful launches of humans to orbit is a testament to your tactical mass relentless precision. In this unforgiving environment, we fly with confidence because we know the finest minds on earth are watching our backs. And I'll pass it over to. So thanks to her crew 12, because our first verdict for humanity. It's just one small moments in the first journey of exploring our world and beyond.

From it here we're reminded that we're all connected to take care of one another, then be together and keep reaching higher. That's how humanity moves forward and how we make each other proud. We copy and appreciate those words. Crew 12. We saw nominal dehumidifier activation and service section Draco checkouts.

Nosecone deploy continues nominally as well. And with the copy off. Thanks very with those words from our four crew 12 astronauts, the crew is now well on their way to the International Space Station. That is, of course, their destination, where they will be docking tomorrow. You also heard a call out that the nosecone was underway for, deploying.

The hooks are driving to open up that nosecone. It's going to remain open all the way through the journey uphill, as well as once they, once freedom, docks to the International Space Station and will remain open throughout the mission and will close once the crew does depart. About nine months from now, after their science and research mission. So it was wonderful to see crew 12 that launched today. Congratulations to the NASA team, the SpaceX team, and of course, to crew 12.

It's great to see you on orbit. Yeah, again, we we did get confirmation that the nosecone deploy is underway. The six hooks that hold the nosecone in place during the launch and ascent. Portions have to retract, and then the nose cone will be able to start to swing open and deploy. This uncovers a number of critical systems for the flight up to the space station, including the forward bulkhead thrusters and the docking hatch.

And the call from the core here in Hawthorne indicated that we, did have good checkouts of the 12 Draco thrusters around the service. Section four to go. After we get the nosecone open and the checklist, the environmental, the environmental control and life support system activated inside Dragon. And we've got a view here. Seeing that the nosecone.

This is from the forward bulkhead section of Dragon. This nosecone is opening up. And that's what you're seeing on your screen. It's about 30% open at this moment. Soon the crew will be able to get their visors open and get out of their suits and settle in for their ride to the space station.

And again, this does take a few minutes for the nosecone to fully open. It's a pretty slow and steady process. But it is underway. And it has been an exciting and jam packed series of events. Following the liftoff of crew 12 at 2:15 a.

m. Pacific Time today, crew 12 is comprised of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack and Jack Hathaway, as well as ESA, our European Space Agency astronauts Sophie Adeno and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andre Phidias. They are now safely in orbit, following an approximately nine minute ride after liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The crew now has a 34 hour journey before they reach their destination, the International Space Station. Docking is targeted for February 14th at 3:15 p.

m. eastern, 12:15 p. m. Pacific, to the space facing port of the station's Harmony module. Between now and then, Dragon will perform a series of burns as it catches up to the space station, and that first burn will be a phase burn, which will occur about 30 minutes from now.

Human spaceflight has come so far in the last six years with Dragon. In addition to flying people, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft also enables researchers the opportunity to fly critical science to orbit. So far, SpaceX and Dragon have carried more than a thousand research experiments to and from low-Earth orbit, both to the International Space Station and on our free fly our missions, from DNA sequencing to 3D printing studies enabled by Dragon and the Space Station test a variety of technologies, systems and materials that will be needed for future long duration exploration missions. Every mission yields critical research and learnings that help make life both on Earth and in space better. And flights like today's help us continue to lay this foundation for our future.

Among the stars and continue our mission to make life multiplanetary now we'll be signing off from space for now, so we're going to send it back over to Kennedy Space Center. But before we go, we want to thank NASA for entrusting us with today's mission. And thank all of you for being with us today. Absolutely, Jessie. And we did just get confirmation as well that the nosecone is 100% open and opened as expected.

So that was the last major milestone that we were tracking from here on our end. But I do want to say thank you to SpaceX as well for everything that you do and all of you who tuned in as well to support today's launch. We are going to say goodbye from here in Hawthorne until we pick back up coverage for docking beginning at 1:15 p. m. eastern tomorrow, February 14th.

For targeting docking to the SpaceX Dragon. SpaceX. We saw a nominal nosecone opening TCS and forward bulkhead Draco checkouts. Dragon copy. And again, that confirmation that nosecone is open.

There are five minutes remaining at our current ground station pass at this time. You are welcome to introduce your Zero-G indicator. Our microgravity indicator consists of four satellites orbiting Associate Earth, all handmade elements by Jack Slaughter and my childhood best friend. Each crew member selected a personal symbol or satellite. A tether links each satellite to the Earth, representing our connection to our families, friends, and our one shared home.

I chose a panda holding a mushroom, two adorable symbols of environmental importance and cultural fascination. Pandas are modern icons of species preservation and invitational diplomacy, but a pivotal character in my childhood. Mushrooms. Fungi are the great decomposers, with all life on Earth depending on them to keep our soils healthy and food webs functioning. I chose to move that my daughter had crocheted.

Each color woven into the design represents a member of our family or cherished a shared activity. By bringing this piece with me, I keep our bond close, allowing me to relive happy memories while looking forward to the ones will create. When I return. I treasure bananas are the world's most common fruit, ordinary fruit shared by billions of people across every continent. Yet on our.

This fresh fruit is rare. So I wanted playful reminders of kitchens and homes, a familiar piece of very pristine white fish with a. Just of food. But I must, even if, stuff going on in life, many of these, who does the funeral for me on the science course? I will give them the, Yama logo.

I just do it for the kingdom. With reference to possible solutions. And we present to you planet via and her moon floating here include 12 dragons. And with that, we had again we copy Dragon. And with that, I can let you know that we had nominal GNC.

Check out. Our next burn is our phasing burn per year. Forward view. Dragon copies will be monitoring. A little bit of a description about the crew 12 Zero-G indicator that they selected called Planet Gaia.

They each shared some great words about what they contributed as part of that Zero-G indicator, to let them know that they are officially in the microgravity environment of space. So that was so cool to hear what they each had to say and how they are bringing a piece of Earth back with them and something that is meaningful to them. So crew 12 is successfully in orbit, and we are targeting a docking tomorrow, on the space facing port of the Harmony module at 3:15 p. m. eastern.

So for now, thank you for joining us here in Hawthorne. We're going to toss it back over to Daryl and Doug at the Kennedy Space Center to wrap up today's coverage. Let's welcome back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I'm Daryl now here with NASA astronaut Claudia on you. Ray.

So good to have you here. Thank you for doing this interview. Post flight. The significance of Claudie being here is tremendous. You were the inspiration for ESA astronaut Sophia to know who, at age 14, watched you fly as the first French woman to go into space back in 1996.

That inspired her on her journey, when she said something clicked and she knew she wanted to be an astronaut. You just witnessed your protege take that inspiration from you and fly into space, and I'm wondering what you felt, what you experienced in that moment. I'm really pleased to be with you. I thought it would have been a quite joy with pride for Sophie, but it was so hugely emotional to see her with this successful launch. Now, I'm really happy because I know that sometimes girls or boys need some turning point in order to make the dream come alive.

And, if I have been this one for her, Sophie, to see today. The brightness of the pass. That's wonderful. Incredible. And she shared, Sophie did during her press conference that you wrote her a letter before she went to go on this launch, would you share some of the words that, that you gave that you handwrote to her love?

The letter was for Sophie. Okay. Understood. Maybe she has a letter in a bucket. It was not advice because I think everyone has his own bus to come with a dream.

It was mainly experiences. Lesson learned. You know, just to say, don't forget that we'll be careful. Always. And the flight has been long.

So take everything for you and enjoy. Great advice, great advice as this mission unfolds. And it will be a long one. Up to eight months. How will you be experiencing, or keeping track of this mission as she does the science and does the work that she's going to do aboard the ISS?

I'm hugely grateful to the teams that support, the experiment and all the work onboard. I do remember 30 years when I flew. Yeah. It was a series on the Mir station who had almost no communication with, the ground. But nowadays 99% of communication with real time transfer of data.

And it will be possible for her to be close to the family, close to the friends, and close to the teams for the experiments. So we will have some way to discuss to extend. If you had, any words that you could say to her now after watching, her take off into space, what would you say? Good speed, but it's already done. Say enjoy.

Say maybe, to the crew that they will meet, on board, big hello. Because that's international collaboration. And cooperation. This is wonderful. And then, be careful with your program, scientific program, because you are here for the heart and and enjoy.

And please share with us we need the transmission or inspiration for the younger generation, what you did for her. She can help pay it forward to the next generation. And as it was on the license plate on her vehicle. Bonvoy. All right, have a good flight.

I don't know if I said it right. Have a good flight. Have a good flight? Yeah. Claudia Nuri, ESA astronaut and first woman from the country of France to go into space.

Thank you so much for being here and sharing your thoughts on the second woman to go to space. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. We're going to turn our attention now to the International Space Station, where crew 12 will join expedition 74 and head over to NASA's Stephen sized loft, who's joined by International Space Station Space Station Program chief scientist Jennifer Buckley.

Stephen. Thank you. Daryl. We are here with another inspiring person. This is Jennifer Buckley, the chief scientist for the International Space Station program.

And Jennifer, the crew that's going up there on crew 12, they're going to perform dozens of experiments during this long duration mission. One of them is turning a potable water into IV fluid. How does that help future explorers? That's right. Out of about the 250 experiments this group will form, one of them is, IV Jen Mini.

So this is building off of some research we've already done on ISS learning how to make, I. V. fluid bags real time on orbit. So commercially, those off the shelf only lasts about 16 months. So it's really important as we step out into the solar system to explore that we're able to support the crew medically.

And so we're going to be doing a tech demo on board. Outstanding. Artemis two. That's lifting off in a couple in a few weeks. They've, of course, been formed by a lot of the research that's taking place on station.

What are some of those ties between space station research and what the Artemis two crew is going to be doing? You know, Space Station is a perfect proving ground for exploration, both to the moon and Mars. So for the vehicle itself, a lot of the life support systems are informed by the research that we've done on ISS proving out those systems, everything from their onboard toilet to their, water based fire extinguisher to help keep the crew safe, inform how we do spaceflight safely as we go further. Excellent. And when you're looking at Artemis three, the mission coming up that will land astronauts on the moon, how is the space station research that's taking place now?

Helping with that mission? Space station research? Not only do we have the astronauts do research, but they also are subjects themselves. So we've learned a lot about astronaut health, through the time of International Space Station. We also, on Artemis two are flying tissue chips with crew cells on them.

So this is really neat. It's a program we started on the International Space Station. So we're going to be taking a look at the effects of crew members, as they, leave low-Earth orbit. And then finally, you know, those beautiful views of Earth that we see from the International Space Station are also really science. And so all of the imagery and technology that we've developed from that are going to help us, take imagery and analyze the surface of the moon as well.

Outstanding, outstanding. Thank thank you so much for being here this morning. Jennifer and Daryl, we will go back to you and Doug and, looking at how the future, how bright the future looks thanks to all this science taking place. Absolutely, Steven, and thank you very much to you and Jennifer Buckley for her interview. Well, we had some social media questions that we weren't quite able to get to, but wheels has promised me he wants to answer them.

So we're going to get those questions to him, and then he's going to post the answers on his X account, Astro wheels. So thank you for following through on that. Absolutely. It's actually Astro underscore wheels okay. So I'll meet you there on X.

Thank you very much. We appreciate that. We absolutely. Well that is going to do it for today's launch coverage. But of course crew 12 journey is just getting started after the beautiful liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and a successful trip to orbit, the crew is now on their way, catching up to the International Space Station.

Docking is targeted for Saturday at 3:15 p. m. Eastern time. NASA plus coverage begins at 1:15 p. m.

Eastern Time. And so, Doug, as they get ready to dock with the International Space Station, the excitement of being in space for the first time will be this first one day in ten hours, and then they'll get to work when they get into the space station. Absolutely. And actually, the approach to the rendezvous and docking with the space station, when you first pick up the space station and the windows, it's like, wow. It's like it's like a castle in the sky, you know?

So it's just quite amazing. As you approach the station, I was, I could it would took my breath away, seeing how large it was, how magnificent it looked and the sky. And one of the things that they'll be seeing, what we've been seeing from the exit counts of the astronauts and the International Space Station, is the solar activity is so high. Have you been seeing some of the northern lights that come from space? Incredible.

Yeah, absolutely. Follow these astronauts that are on board. And, they're going to be taking some incredible imagery of the of the light at the poles. So the northern lights and, and the southern lights as well. And they're beautiful on the ground, as we know.

But up in space, the red topped part of those green ribboned waves. It's so crystal clear. It's beautiful. As he said, make sure you check out those exact counts. Absolutely.

On the space station, it looks like rain, like green and red rain. And that lights up the underneath of the space station. This glowing glowing red and green from the from the lights. It's just quite amazing. The.

That is the aurora. Yeah. And there's a wow factor like no other. All right. Well thank you very much.

Wheels. You can follow along with Crew Twelve's journey to the station by listening in on real time mission audio, the same operational comms used by the flight controllers. Just scan that QR code that you see at the bottom of your screen. You can use your phone, take a screenshot of it and tune in. Later on, we'll pick back up with live broadcast coverage about two hours before docking right here on NASA Plus Wheels.

Thank you so much for sharing this moment for us, for all your, incredible stories and information and guiding us through today's, launch coverage. We greatly appreciate it. It's a great pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. We look forward to hearing more about your work on the human landing system and getting the moon.

Absolutely. Stay tuned. You're going to hear more from wheels. So to all of our guests and our teams at NASA and SpaceX, our production team, for the great job they did today. And to you watching around the world, thank you so much for being part of today's launch.

From launch pad to low Earth orbit. We're going to take a look now, going all the way back to the beginning. The moments from suit up to orbit. Have a great morning everyone. It began inside the historic astronaut crew quarters, where space teams helped each crew member into their custom pressure suits.

Before heading out, the crew paused for a final pre-launch tradition. You see it there, the card game gathering around the table. It's a way to set the tone and leave any bad luck behind. Then it was time to step outside. The crew walked out to greet family, friends and supporters.

Following a path walked by every NASA astronaut since Apollo 7 in 1968. A short time later, the crew climbed into their Teslas, beginning the ride out to Launch Complex 48, escorted by security through Kennedy Space Center and onto the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As they arrived at the pad, the crew got out and got their first close up look at the Falcon nine rocket that you see there. And then they walked across their crew access arm in pairs. First the commander pilot and the mission specialist.

And then we saw him climb into Dragon and get into their seats for flight. Inside the spacecraft, seats were rotated into position and the suit checks were performed as the countdown continued. Ignition and liftoff. Go, Falcon! Go, Dragon and Godspeed!

Crew 12 and liftoff! Freedom flight is bound for the International Space Station. 1. 7 million pounds of thrust. Now, Falcon nine through 12 vehicle is pitching downrange, and all nine Merlin vehicles have left.

We're getting good call outs on the first stage. Performance and propulsion. So far.

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