Space station crew eager for Wednesday launch

Crew 12 — Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev — are scheduled to launch Wednesday to the International Space Station and will restore the station's crew to seven after an early Crew 11 return for a medical issue.

Four crew members are preparing to launch Wednesday to the International Space Station to replace a team that returned early last month after a medical issue. Crew 12 — commander Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — are set to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 6:01 a.m. EST with a planned docking Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The flight was moved up after NASA delayed the Artemis II moon mission to March because of a hydrogen leak. The crew is in pre-flight medical quarantine and SpaceX completed a test firing of the rocket's first stage. Key details: - Launch is scheduled for 6:01 a.m. EST Wednesday from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9; docking is expected Thursday at 10:30 a.m. - Crew 12 members are Jessica Meir (commander), Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev. - The station flight had been held until after Artemis II but was moved up after that moonshot was delayed to March due to a hydrogen leak. - The station has operated with a reduced crew of three since Crew 11 returned early on Jan. 15 after an undisclosed medical issue. - Arrival of Crew 12 will restore the station to seven long-duration occupants, allowing a fuller schedule of experiments and two-person NASA spacewalks to resume. - Meir and Fedyaev have prior long-duration station experience; Hathaway and Adenot are making their first spaceflight. Summary: If the launch proceeds as planned, Crew 12 will arrive Thursday and restore the station's full complement, easing workload on the remaining crew and allowing experiments and two-person spacewalks to resume. The next scheduled steps are Wednesday's 6:01 a.m. EST Falcon 9 liftoff and Thursday's planned docking at 10:30 a.m.