SpaceX Crew-12 departs space station, headed home to Earth

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Oct 7, 2026

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The International Space Station got a little less crowded Wednesday as the four members of Crew-12 climbed aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom, undocked and headed back to Earth.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway along with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev had been on board the station for nearly eight months having launched from Cape Canaveral back in mid-February.

Undocking took place at 8:05 a.m. EDT as the station was traveling 222 miles over Cuba. The quartet have more than a 27-hour return trip before a planned splashdown at 11:34 a.m, Thursday in the Pacific Ocean.

Their departure dropped the station population back to seven including the four new members of Crew-13 that arrived on Oct. 1 after launching from the Space Coast. That includes Central Florida astronaut Luke Delaney who made his first spaceflight. Delaney, 47, grew up in DeBary and attended DeLand and Deltona High School.

Crew-12 will have spent 237 days in space by the time they make it home. Meir had been station commander for Expedition 75 and handed over command this past week.

Crew-13 will remain on board until next spring while another three space station crew that flew up on a Soyuz this past July are set to remain at the station until April.

The seven remaining crew on board include Delaney’s fellow Crew-13 members, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos’ Sergey Teteryatnikov. In addition the three members that arrived on a Soyuz include NASA astronaut Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.

The space station has been continuously populated for nearly 26 years having first hosted astronauts on Expedition 1 in November 2000.

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