NASA Crew-12 Announces Upcoming Launch Opportunities

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The Expedition 74 crew aboard the International Space Station conducted a variety of scientific research and maintenance tasks on Wednesday, including a robotics challenge for college students, testing AI-assisted tools to boost crew efficiency, and Earth observation activities. Meanwhile, NASA announced potential launch windows for the upcoming Crew-12 mission to the space station.

Why it matters

The research and technology demonstrations aboard the space station help advance scientific understanding and develop new capabilities that could benefit future space exploration missions. The upcoming Crew-12 launch is also an important milestone, as it will deliver a new crew to the orbiting laboratory to continue critical research and operations.

The details

The Expedition 74 crew participated in a robotics challenge where college students from the Asia-Pacific region competed to control the Astrobee free-flying robots in the Kibo laboratory module. NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams monitored the challenge, which aims to inspire students to pursue STEM education. Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos tested AI-assisted tools to improve crew efficiency, including speech-to-text conversion and data handling. He also serviced various systems in the Russian segment of the station. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev conducted Earth observation activities and physics research support.

• The earliest opportunity for NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the space station is 6 a.m. EST, Feb. 11, from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
• Next opportunities for the Crew-12 launch are 5:38 a.m. Feb. 12 and 5:15 a.m. Feb. 13.

What they’re saying

What’s next

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.