SpaceX moves Crew Dragon Freedom into hangar ahead of Crew-12 launch

SpaceX crews moved the Crew Dragon capsule Freedom into a hangar at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as final closeouts continue for Crew-12, a long-duration commercial crew mission bound for the International Space Station. Photos released by SpaceX via X show technicians around the capsule as engineers continue vehicle checkouts ahead of a still-fluid launch timeline.

The mission is rostered to carry Jessica Meir as commander, Jack Hathaway as pilot, Sophie Adenot as a European Space Agency mission specialist and Andrey Fedyaev, returning for his second Dragon flight. The crew is slated for an extended stay of about nine months, longer than the six-month rotations that have been typical in recent years. NASA moved the launch window earlier in February to speed relief of a skeleton crew at the station after Crew-11 departed Jan. 14 following a medical evacuation.

SpaceX said teams were finishing closeout of the Dragon spacecraft and expected to transport it to the pad 40 hangar early next week. "in parallel our teams have been working towards crew 12 launch which will be our 12th long-duration mission to the iss supporting nasa's commercial crew program. we are excited to fly to the iss and excited about our return of andre to his second dragon mission and to be a part of jack and sophie's first spaceflight as well. our teams are currently finishing up close out of the dragon spacecraft with expectation to transport to the hangar at pad 40 early next week," the company said in archive remarks.

Operational planning remains active and contingent on multiple checks. A NASA and SpaceX representative told reporters on a press call, "right now the 11th is the soonest we could launch." In other comments recorded during briefings, mission planners cautioned that "those timelines will be a little dynamic because in particular, if we get out to the launch pad and we're trying to static fire around Artemis operations, we will we will work around Artemis in all those scenarios. So it it depends and we have a a table that we have built."

SpaceX has outlined hardware changes for the flight. Mission statements list an upgraded Falcon 9 second-stage flight controller and avionics, as well as structural strengthening around Dragon's parachute bay and closeout areas. The crew will also wear an updated launch and entry suit similar to the version that Crew-11 pilot Mike Finink used. The Falcon 9 booster assigned to Crew-12 is described as being on its second flight after launching a Starlink mission earlier this month and is planned to return to the launch site to land near pad 40. As SpaceX put it in briefing notes, "the falcon 9 booster to support this mission will be on its second flight uh after completing a successful launch of the star link mission earlier this month... the Falcon booster will perform a return to launch site uh to our new landing zone at Slick 40."

But not all uncertainties are resolved. SpaceX temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 fleet after an issue with the rocket's upper stage, and officials have not said whether the stand-down will push Crew-12. Internal remarks preserve one inconsistent line about Freedom's flight history — "crew 12 will fly on dragon freedom, this will be the fifth flight. last flight was nine." The phrase is internally contradictory and has not been clarified.

Engineers will run final reviews and checkouts before committing to a firm launch date, and flight directors say they will sequence pad activity around other major operations, including Artemis. For now the hangar move marks a visible milestone in the countdown; the decision to press forward into a final schedule will come only after the remaining technical reviews and any clearance of the Falcon 9 upper-stage issue.