As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission, four crew members from three space agencies will launch no later than Sunday, February 15, 2026, to the International Space Station on a long-duration scientific expedition.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway will serve as the spacecraft’s commander and pilot, respectively, and will be accompanied by ESA astronaut Sophie Adeno and Roscosmos astronaut Andrei Fedyev, who will serve as mission specialists. Crew-12 will join Expedition 74 crew members currently aboard the space station.
The flight is the twelfth crew flight with SpaceX to the orbiting laboratory as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Crew-12 will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as benefit people on Earth.
This will be the second trip to the space station for Meir, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013. A Caribou, Maine, native, Meir earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University, a master’s degree in space studies from the International Space University, and a doctorate in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. On her maiden spaceflight, Meir spent 205 days as a flight engineer during Expedition 61/62, and completed the first of three women’s spacewalks with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch, for a total of 21 hours and 44 minutes outside the station. Since then, she has served in various roles, including Assistant Chief Astronaut for Commercial Crew (SpaceX), Deputy Flight Integration Division, and Assistant Chief Astronaut for the Human Landing System.
Hathaway, a US Navy captain, has been selected as part of the 2021 class of astronaut candidates. This will be Hathaway’s first spaceflight. The South Windsor, Connecticut, native holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and history from the U.S. Naval Academy and master’s degrees in aviation dynamics from Cranfield University and national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College, respectively. Hathaway also graduated from the Empire Test Pilot’s School, Fixed Wing Class 70 in 2011. At the time of his selection, Hathaway was deployed aboard the USS Truman, serving as the prospective executive officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 81. He has accumulated more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 different aircraft, including more than 500 aborted landings and 39 combat missions.
The Crew-12 mission will be Adinot’s first spaceflight. Before being selected as an ESA astronaut in 2022, Adino earned an engineering degree from ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, specializing in the flight dynamics of spacecraft and aircraft. She also earned a master’s degree in human factors engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. After earning her master’s degree, she became a helicopter cockpit design engineer at Airbus Helicopters and later worked as a search and rescue pilot at Cazaux Air Base from 2008 to 2012. She then joined the Air Force Transport Squadron in Villacoublay, France, and served as a formation flight leader and mission commander from 2012 to 2017. Between 2019 and 2022, she served Adino as a helicopter test pilot at the Cazaux Flight Test Center with the DGA (Directorate General of Armaments – French defense procurement agency). I have logged over 3,000 flight hours on 22 different helicopters.
This will be Fedayev’s second extended stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. He graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute in 2004, specializing in aircraft operations and air traffic regulation, with qualifications as a pilot engineer. Before being selected as a cosmonaut, he served as deputy commander of the Ilyushin 38 aircraft unit in the Kamchatka region, logged more than 600 flight hours and attained the rank of military pilot 2nd class. Fedyaev was selected for the Cosmonaut Corps at the Gagarin Research and Test Center for astronaut training in 2012 and has served as a test cosmonaut since 2014. In 2023, he flew to the space station as a mission specialist during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, spending 186 days in orbit, as flight engineer of Expedition 69. For his achievements, Fedyaev was named Hero of the Russian Federation and awarded the Yuri Gagarin Medal.
For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and achieving research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. With commercial companies focusing on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low-Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing its resources on deep space missions to the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign in preparation for future human missions to Mars.
Learn more about ISS research and operations at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
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Joshua Finch/Jimmy Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Shanika Vereen
Johnson Space Center in Houston
281-483-5111
shaneequa.y.vereen@nasa.gov