NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 astronauts to discuss their 8-month-long ISS mission live on October 15

NASA’s Crew-12 astronauts are back home safely from the International Space Station (ISS) and will soon address the media to discuss the achievements of their mission. The crew's Dragon spacecraft, named Freedom, splashed down on October 8 at 11:34 am EDT in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, marking an end to their mission. The spacecraft had undocked from the station’s Harmony module at 8:05 am on October 7, 237 days after it reached the orbital lab on February 14.

Crew-12 was commanded by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir with pilot Jack Hathaway (also of NASA), European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot (mission specialist) and Russian Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (mission specialist). According to NASA, the quartet traveled more than 100 million miles and completed more than 3,792 orbits around Earth before splashing down in the ocean. "We’re grateful for the dedication across the human spaceflight team that makes this possible, and we’re thrilled to welcome Jessica, Jack, Sophie, and Andrey home," Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said in a statement.

Apart from supporting a range of science experiments across fields that will make life better on Earth, the crew members also logged some personal achievements. Meir performed four spacewalks during the approximately eight-month-long mission, completing a total of seven spacewalks in her career. She now has the third most total career spacewalks after retired NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Sunita Williams. Moreover, Adenot also performed three spacewalks (extravehicular activity), and she became the first French woman to step out of the orbiting lab on her debut on August 18. While Crew-12 marked the second space mission for Meir and Fedyaev, it was the first for Adenot and Hathaway. 

As for the scientific research, the astronauts focused on studying stem cell production and how pneumonia-causing bacteria may cause heart damage, demonstrated on-demand IV fluid generation, and looked into the behavior of blood flow on spaceflight, among others. 

When is the press conference?

NASA has planned a press conference with the Crew-12 astronauts on October 15 at Johnson Space Center in Houston. It will begin at 3:30 pm EDT, and the crew will discuss their science mission and experience of living aboard the orbital lab. The agency will stream the event on its official YouTube channel and X handle.

Who is on the station now?

Crew-12 was replaced by four astronauts of the Crew-13 mission who arrived at the station on October 1. These four members are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins (mission commander) and Luke Delaney (pilot), Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk (mission specialist), and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (mission specialist). They have joined NASA’s Anil Menon and Russia’s Anna Kikina and Pyotr Dubrov, who have been living in space since mid-July as the MS-29 crew. Both crews are expected to return in spring next year.

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