The Space Coast’s first human spaceflight of the year is on tap for early Friday morning as NASA and SpaceX aim to send up a mission to the International Space Station, and also bring back the rocket’s booster that could bring with it a sonic boom across Central Florida.
The launch of Crew-12 atop a Falcon 9 rocket is targeting liftoff at 5:15 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions at the launch site, but there remains a moderate risk of poor conditions along the launch corridor. Poor weather along that path would force a delay as it would violate NASA’s needs in the event of an emergency abort before it gets to orbit.
“After detailed weather briefings Thursday morning, forecasters and mission managers opted to continue into the Crew-12 launch countdown,” reads an update from NASA. “They will again review the forecast around 10 p.m. Thursday, a few hours before the crew suits up.”
SpaceX before 11 p.m. said all systems are looking good and they would move forward with the launch attempt. NASA gave a go before midnight to proceed to countdown.
The first-stage booster for the mission is making its second trip to space, and SpaceX will attempt a recovery landing at its new pad adjacent the launch tower at SLC-40.
That means parts of Central Florida could be in store for a predawn sonic boom. SpaceX sent out an advisory noting the rocket coming back to Landing Zone 40 could bring one or more sonic booms that could be heard by residents of Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties, depending on weather and other conditions.
From left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot pose next to their mission insignia inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 crew members will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 to the International Space Station no earlier than 5:15 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 13, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. (Kim Shiflett/NASA)
Headed to space are NASA astronaut and commander Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut and pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Meir and Fedyaev are making their second spaceflights while Hathaway and Adenot are rookies.
They will climb aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom making its fifth trip to space about two hours before liftoff. NASA coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime and YouTube will begin at 3:15 a.m., although blog updates will begin around 1:15 a.m. Friday.
If the launch goes as planned, the quartet would be set for a rendezvous with the space station on Saturday around 3:15 p.m. about 26 hours after liftoff.
The quartet will join three already on board the station bringing its crew complement back up to seven after Crew-11 departed the station last month because of one its four crew suffering some sort of health incident.
Crew-12 is the 12th operational crew rotation flight for SpaceX, and 17th overall Dragon mission with crew to visit the space station including its first human spaceflight, Demo-2, back in May 2020. Those missions also include four commercial flights for Axiom Space for short stays to the station while SpaceX has also flown three commercial orbital flights — 2021’s Inspriation4, 2024’s Polaris Dawn and 2025’s Fram2.
Current NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman funded and flew on both Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn.
Crew-12 marks the first human spaceflight from the Space Coast this year. The next could be the Artemis II mission as early as next month with four crew set to fly on the Orion spacecraft for the first time on a lunar flyby mission.
That launch date won’t be set until NASA completes a second effort of a wet dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System rocket that remains on Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B.
SpaceX has flown all but one of the Crew Dragon missions from KSC’s Launch 39-A, but is amidst a repair job of that pad’s crew access arm, and has stated it intends to shift all future Dragon flights to CCSFS while it pursues construction of a new Starship and Super Heavy launch tower adjacent its pad at 39-A.