A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts has launched on its way to the International Space Station, beginning a journey that will bring the orbiting laboratory back to full staff after a month of operating with a skeleton crew.The mission, called Crew-12, lifted off at around 5:17 a.m. ET Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS Saturday afternoon.NASA, which contracts SpaceX for the astronauts’ transport to and from the space station, had sought to expedite the Crew-12 launch due to the staffing situation. But the agency had to forgo two possible launch windows on Wednesday and Thursday because of unfavorable weather along the rocket’s flight path.NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 crew members from left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 9. – Kim Shiflett/NASAThe International Space Station has been operating with three people on board — well below the seven-person staff the space agency desires — since mid-January.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe new launch comes after a previous SpaceX staffing mission, Crew-11, was forced to make an early return to Earth because of an undisclosed medical issue by an unidentified member.“NASA was ready. The team responded quickly and professionally, as did the teams across the agency, working closely with our commercial partners and executed a very safe return,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a news conference in January, adding that the astronaut was in stable condition. “This is exactly why we train, and this is NASA at its finest.”Upon Crew-11’s splashdown return off the coast of California, all four astronauts went to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. The crew — which included NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov of Russia — later appeared at a news conference.“How we handled everything all the way through, from nominal operations to this unforeseen operation, really bodes well for future exploration,” Fincke said.NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard a SpaceX recovery ship after he and his crewmates landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, on January 15. – Bill Ingalls/NASAAn understaffed space stationOn board the Crew-12 mission will be NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.AdvertisementAdvertisem …
