{"id":627936,"date":"2026-09-17T22:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627936\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T22:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:46:18","slug":"im-so-looking-forward-to-seeing-nature-again-spacexs-crew-12-astronauts-gearing-up-for-trip-home-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627936\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m so looking forward to seeing nature again’: SpaceX’s Crew-12 astronauts gearing up for trip home to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving the International Space Station<\/a> will be bittersweet for its outgoing crew, who\u2019ve been living aboard the orbital lab since February performing maintenance and upgrades and carrying out dozens of microgravity research experiments.<\/p>\n

The astronauts of SpaceX\u2019s Crew-12 mission launched to the ISS on Feb. 13<\/a> and are now gearing up for their return to Earth<\/a>. When exactly that might take place, however, is still up in the air, as their replacements don’t yet have a launch date. NASA and SpaceX<\/a> had targeted Sept. 12 for the liftoff of Crew-13, but have twice delayed that mission to allow additional time for preflight tests and data analysis. Now, NASA<\/a> is targeting a Crew-13 launch no sooner than early October, according to a Sept. 16 statement<\/a> from the space agency.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As is standard practice with ISS crew rotations, the astronauts of Crew-12 will remain aboard the station and continue a typical day-to-day schedule through a brief overlap period between crews once their replacements are safely aboard. In the meantime, the members of Crew-12 \u2014 NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency<\/a> astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos<\/a> cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev \u2014 are reflecting on their time in space<\/a> and also looking forward to the comforts of Earth upon their return.<\/p>\n

The quartet gathered<\/a> in the station\u2019s Kibo laboratory module for a call with reporters yesterday (Sept. 16) to discuss the past several months aboard the ISS and their upcoming trip home. It was the first time \u201cin quite a while,\u201d Meir said, that just the four Crew-12 astronauts found themselves together. They currently share the station with the three astronauts of Russia\u2019s Soyuz MS-29<\/a> mission \u2014 NASA’s Anil Menon<\/a> and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.<\/p>\n

Their coming together \u201creally started evoking those memories of our trip up here and our ride on the [SpaceX] Dragon<\/a>, and of course started to get us anticipating that ride home that hopefully we’re going to have pretty soon around the corner,\u201d Meir said on the call.<\/p>\n

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All four reflected on some of their most profound moments during their spaceflight and shared some of what they\u2019re looking forward to once they\u2019re back on Earth. \u201cMy biggest eureka moment happened just recently, on the final spacewalk that we did,\u201d Meir said, referring to her Sept. 1 extravehicular activity<\/a> (EVA). She performed a total of four EVAs during this current stint aboard the ISS, bringing her career total spacewalk<\/a> tally to seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time that I ever got to ride the Canadarm<\/a> on a spacewalk,\u201d Meir said, describing the EVA as a \u201cfull circle\u201d moment. She helped fix the Canadarm during a previous spacewalk on this mission, \u201cand then to ride it with these guys driving me around was the most incredible feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

NASA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

NASA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\nJessica Meir\n<\/p>\n

Crew-12 Commander<\/p>\n

Fedyaev recalled another notable spacewalk event. During the May 27 Roscosmos EVA<\/a> that featured cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, Fedyaev controlled the station\u2019s European Robotic Arm (ERA) with both his comrades attached.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most [memorable] moment in my flight was the work with the ERA manipulator,\u201d Fadyaev said. \u201cWe moved \u2026 two cosmonauts in one moment on the ERA from SM module to the MLM module,\u201d he added, referring to Russia\u2019s Zvezda Service Module and Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module. It was the first-ever time that two cosmonauts were transported simultaneously between modules using the ERA, and the experience stood out for Fadyaev, who skillfully handled the robotic arm\u2019s controls.<\/p>\n

Roscosmos Cosmonaut<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Roscosmos Cosmonaut<\/p>\n

\nAndrey Fedyaev\n<\/p>\n

Crew-12 Mission Specialist<\/p>\n

Adenot pointed to the second of her two spacewalks as a point of pride during what is her first mission to space. She and Menon spent the majority of their Aug. 18 EVA<\/a> removing a failed Space-to-Ground Antenna (SGANT) on the station\u2019s Z1 truss, but stuck bolts and electrical connectors ate up so much time<\/a> that they had to defer installing the spare until Aug. 25<\/a>. Adenot recalled her relief when engineering teams on the ground confirmed the new SGANT\u2019s functionality. \u201cAfter two EVAs trying to fix it with Anil, it was a great thing to hear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

ESA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

ESA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\nSophie Adenot\n<\/p>\n

Crew-12 Mission Specialist<\/p>\n

The Crew-12 astronauts also discussed some of the science they\u2019ve helped carry out during their time on orbit. One of Hathaway\u2019s proudest moments came when he heard the celebrations from teams in mission control over ISS communications channels after the crew completed upgrades to the station\u2019s Cold Atom Lab, which facilitates quantum mechanics experiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent, it must have been two or three hours trying to figure out how to get this part to fit into the slide it was supposed to fit in,\u201d Hathaway said. \u201cHearing the cheers \u2026 over the space-to-ground loops when we finally got it properly installed and it was ready to do science was a pretty fun moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Meir\u2019s favorite experiments took place in the Life Sciences Glovebox, including investigations involving neocartilage and stem cells. \u201cPrevious experiments have shown that the stem cells actually divide for longer, more continuously, in microgravity than they do on Earth,\u201d Meir said. \u201cSo potentially that’s something very novel that was discovered. And potentially, if it becomes cost-effective, we could produce stem cells up here to be used for targeted therapies back on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

NASA Astronaut<\/p>\n

\nJack Hathaway\n<\/p>\n

Crew-12 Pilot<\/p>\n

As for what they\u2019re looking forward to once they return to Earth, the answer is pretty much everything. \u201cOne of the things about living in space is, it’s an expeditionary lifestyle,\u201d Hathaway said. \u201cWe don’t have a lot of selection of food. We don’t have running water \u2026 So going home and being able to take a nice long hot shower will be very relaxing and very nice. And of course, I’m looking forward to seeing my family. But a hot shower is near the top of my list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adenot, too, has her mind in the water. \u201cI love water sports,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don’t have a lot of variety of sports [aboard the ISS], and obviously we don’t have water sports. So I’m looking forward to these.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I’m looking forward to most is seeing my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,\u201d Meir said, and added a few more things to her list. \u201cI’m so looking forward to seeing nature again,\u201d she said, \u201cfeeling the breeze on my face, the wind rustling through the leaves, experiencing all those things that we don’t have up here. But I will very, very much miss being weightless all the time and the incredible views that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaving the International Space Station will be bittersweet for its outgoing crew, who\u2019ve been living aboard the orbital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-627936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}