Okay, so NASA is sending Crew-12 to the International Space Station (ISS) sooner than expected. Initially, they were aiming for a February 15th launch, but now it's been bumped up to February 11th. That's pretty cool, right?

If everything goes according to plan, the Dragon capsule carrying the crew should dock with the ISS around 10:30 AM on February 12th. This is happening because Crew-11 had to come home earlier than planned due to a medical issue with one of the astronauts. They needed specialized equipment that wasn't available on the ISS. So, it was better to bring them back to Earth.

For a while, only three people were running the entire ISS: NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts. Now, they're getting reinforcements! Crew-12 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency, and Andrey Fedyaev, a Roscosmos cosmonaut. It’s great to see such international collaboration happening up there!

There was a bit of a scare recently when SpaceX had to ground its Falcon 9 rocket because of a problem with the upper stage. It made me wonder if Crew-12's flight would be delayed. But the Federal Aviation Administration gave it the all-clear on February 6th. Disaster averted!

If you're into space stuff (and who isn't?), NASA will be streaming the whole thing live. You can catch the prelaunch, launch, and docking on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube. The launch coverage starts at 4AM Eastern time on February 11th. I know it's early, but it's definitely worth setting an alarm for. It is going to be a blast!