A Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station on Valentine's Day. At 5:14 pm ET (22:14 UTC) on Saturday evening, the astronauts opened the hatches, marking the start of their mission.
The arrival of four astronauts under the Crew 12 missionāJessica Meir and Jack Hathaway from NASA, Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency, and Andrey Fedyaev from Roscosmosābrings the total number of astronauts on the space station to seven. This allows the US space agency to have a complete complement of astronauts in orbit.
The number of astronauts aboard the station varies with crew rotations and shorter stays by private astronauts. Since Crew Dragon started regular flights at the end of 2020, NASA has aimed to maintain at least four 'USOS' astronauts on board continuously. 'USOS' stands for 'US Orbital Segment,' and includes astronauts from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan, all trained to manage the station areas maintained by NASA and its partner astronauts.
Recent events prompted NASA to make an extraordinary decision after one of the Crew-11 members encountered a health issue early in the year. Although the afflicted astronautās identity has not been disclosed, they are reportedly recovering on Earth.