The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission began their routine two-week quarantine on Wednesday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ahead of their upcoming launch to the International Space Station.
The earliest opportunity for Crew-12 to launch to the orbital complex is 6 a.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 11, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The next available launch opportunities are 5:38 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, and 5:15 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 13. NASA continues working toward potential launch windows for two important crewed missions this February: Artemis II and Crew-12. The agency will make any decisions on the best launch opportunity for each mission closer to flight.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to travel Friday, Feb. 6, from Houston to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they’ll remain in quarantine while conducting prelaunch operations.
Crew quarantine began during Apollo to reduce preflight illnesses and prevent subsequent symptoms during flight. During Crew 12’s quarantine, contact with other people is limited, and most interactions are handled remotely. Family members and select mission personnel undergo medical screening and must be cleared before interacting with the crew.
Before quarantine, the team also completed the crew equipment interface test on Jan. 12. The daylong exercise include …