NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 to discuss their return from ISS on September 16: Here’s where to watch live
NASA has planned a news conference on Wednesday, September 16, featuring the SpaceX Crew-12 mission astronauts currently residing in the International Space Station (ISS). The conference will see the four members of Crew-12 join from the orbital lab to recap their mission and discuss their upcoming return to Earth.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the four members of Crew-12 will call from the @Space_Station to recap their mission and answer questions from the media. How to tune in: https://t.co/PnufPzIneL pic.twitter.com/pCWXxa593A
— NASA (@NASA) September 11, 2026
In a statement, NASA said, "The crew will depart the space station after the arrival of Crew-13 and a short handover period. Ahead of Crew-12’s return, mission teams will review weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of California prior to departure from station.”
How to watch the conference live?
The conference, which will begin at 2:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, will be streamed live on NASA's YouTube channel.
Crew-12 prepares for return
The Crew-12 quartet—NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev—launched to the space station on February 13 on an eight-month-long mission, which is likely to last till the end of September. While it marked the second flight for Meir and Fedyaev, it’s the first mission for Adenot and Hathaway. Over the last few months, the crew has been engaged in conducting various kinds of research, including studying pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve cardiovascular treatments, on-demand intravenous fluid generation for future space missions, and how blood flow is affected during spaceflight.
Meir, who is the commander of Crew-12, is also serving as the commander of the space station after Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov handed the responsibility over to her before his departure with two others in July. She has been leading six other residents of the orbital lab in their work and will pass on the baton before her departure, possibly by the end of September.
As for the Crew-13 members, they have finished their training and are waiting on a final launch date. The mission was postponed from its original launch date of September 12 because engineers found an issue with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft during pre-flight tests. NASA had said teams detected an oxidizer leak on the spacecraft’s propulsion system, which called for additional tests. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney will serve as Crew-13 commander and spacecraft pilot, respectively, whereas Canadian Space Agency’s Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov are mission specialists for Crew-13. Watkins will be flying on her second mission and become the first NASA astronaut to ride the Dragon spacecraft twice, whereas the other three will be embarking on their debut space mission.
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