Crew-12 Leaves the ISS With Fedyaev and Adenot Aboard

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 Dragon undocked at 8:05 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module. Aboard were NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Splashdown is targeted for about 11:34 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 8, off the California coast.

The NASA billing is a commercial-crew homecoming. The seats tell a quieter story. Fedyaev is flying home on an American capsule under a 2022 NASA-Roscosmos barter, and Adenot is closing the first flight of ESA’s 2022 astronaut class, after three spacewalks in two weeks.

Dragon Freedom Pushes Off Harmony at 8:05 a.m.

The hatch between Dragon Freedom and the station closed at 6:05 a.m. EDT, NASA’s station team said, about two hours before the undock. The capsule then left Harmony’s zenith port while the complex was flying 262 miles over northern Cuba, according to NASA’s undocking commentary. ESA’s human spaceflight office listed the mechanical steps in order: umbilicals off, 12 hooks demated, two thruster firings.

SpaceX confirmed the split in a single line as Freedom backed away.

Dragon separation confirmed! pic.twitter.com/0SXhIG8O83

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 7, 2026

Five other craft stayed on the lab after Dragon left: the SpaceX Crew-13 Dragon on Harmony’s forward port, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL, Soyuz MS-29, and the Progress 95 and 96 cargo ships. SpaceX said Freedom will lower its orbit, drop its trunk, and splashdown about 27.5 hours later in the Pacific. That span, from 8:05 a.m. Wednesday to 11:34 a.m. Thursday, is 27 hours and 29 minutes.

Four Agencies Share One Capsule Home

Meir commanded the flight and had commanded the station itself until Sunday. Hathaway sat in the pilot seat on his first mission. Adenot and Fedyaev flew as mission specialists. NASA said this was the second spaceflight for Meir and Fedyaev and the first for Hathaway and Adenot.

THE CREW ABOARD DRAGON FREEDOM

The mix is the working model of how the station is staffed now: two NASA flyers, one European, one Russian, all on a Falcon-launched Dragon, with a Soyuz crew holding the other half of the lab.

Fedyaev Took the Dragon Seat in December

Roscosmos assigned Fedyaev to Crew-12 in December 2025 after removing Oleg Artemyev, saying Artemyev was moving to other work. Fedyaev already knew the vehicle. He flew SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission in 2023, so Crew-12 is his second trip on Dragon.

He is not a guest. NASA and Roscosmos signed a seat-barter deal in July 2022 with no money exchanged. A Russian flies on Crew Dragon; an American flies on Soyuz. The point, NASA officials said at the time, is that both countries still have a way to the station if one ship type is grounded.

That bargain is live on this return. Fedyaev comes home on Freedom. NASA astronaut Anil Menon stays on the Soyuz side of the stack with Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina until spring 2027. The American capsule and the Russian one still carry each other’s people.

Adenot Walked Outside Three Times in Two Weeks

Adenot is the first flyer from ESA’s 2022 career class. ESA planned her εpsilon mission for as long as nine months when Crew-12 lifted off on 13 February. The stay ran to nearly eight months, which NASA used as the official description of the tour. Andreas Mogensen, who leads ESA’s Human Exploration Group, said before launch that the agency wanted its new astronauts to get their first time on orbit. He is on NASA’s return briefing list for Thursday.

She did not spend the increment only inside. NASA’s Expedition 75 listing shows four station spacewalks in late summer. Adenot was on three of them, and the last was her third. Meir’s outing on Sept. 1 was her seventh. NASA called that walk the 284th at the outpost since 1998.

FOUR STATION SPACEWALKS IN LATE SUMMER

The August pair of walks pulled a failed high-speed antenna and then put a spare on the Z1 truss. On Sept. 1, Meir and Adenot replaced a retroreflector on Harmony’s forward port, work NASA tied to visiting-craft navigation and to later deorbit prep. Hathaway stayed inside for those excursions, running airlock and suit support with the others.

They Arrived to a Station Running on Three

Freedom left Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 5:15 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 13, after weather slips from earlier in the week. It docked at 3:15 p.m. EST the next day. Crew-11 had come home early in January, and the lab had been down to three people: Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev, and NASA’s Christopher Williams, who had arrived on Soyuz MS-28. Crew-12 brought the count back to seven.

FROM LAUNCH TO THE PACIFIC

1. Feb. 13, 2026: Falcon 9 lifts Crew-12 from SLC-40 at 5:15 a.m. EST.
2. Feb. 14, 2026: Dragon docks to Harmony’s space-facing port at 3:15 p.m. EST.
3. Oct. 1, 2026: Crew-13 docks to Harmony’s forward port and a six-day handover begins.
4. Oct. 4, 2026: Meir hands ISS command to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov.
5. Oct. 7, 2026: Hatch closes at 6:05 a.m. EDT; Dragon undocks at 8:05 a.m. EDT.
6. Oct. 8, 2026: Splashdown targeted at about 11:34 a.m. EDT off California.

Meir’s first words after reaching orbit set the tone the crew kept using on the station.

We have left the Earth, but the Earth has not left us.

Jessica Meir, Crew-12 commander, after reaching orbit

At the welcome ceremony she pointed at the mixed passports in the module. “We have so many countries represented, so many backgrounds, so many disciplines, and we are so excited to be here and to get to work,” she said. Kud-Sverchkov told them the three-person crew had been waiting “a very long time.” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the arrival a demonstration of “the professionalism, preparation, and teamwork required for human spaceflight.”

Bone Scaffolds and IV Fluid They Made in Orbit

NASA’s research office wrapped the increment as a medical and materials run, not a sightseeing tour. Hathaway worked crystal-growth hardware aimed at cancer-targeting drugs. Meir cabled the Cold Atom Lab so ultracold atoms could be watched longer than they can on the ground. Adenot held a small container for a bone scaffold made from wood, a Green Bone test that uses the station’s faster bone-loss rate. NASA said osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people on Earth.

STATION WORK THEY PACKED INTO THE INCREMENT

• On-demand IV fluid: Adenot ran a mini generator because commercial bags expire after about 16 months and weigh too much for a long trip.
• Stem cell expansion: Meir and Hathaway grew clinical-grade cells that NASA says could help rebuild blood and immune systems after chemotherapy.
• Antibiotic resistance: Hathaway sequenced hardy microbes that survive drugs, hunger, and disinfectant in a closed cabin.
• Metal 3D printing: Adenot installed a printer that has already sent small metal parts home for comparison with ground-made pieces.
• Cartilage in microgravity: Meir tended engineered tissue meant to look more like the real thing than implants taken from another joint.

Those samples and logs ride home in Freedom. The hardware stays. Crew-13 is already unpacking its own Dragon on the forward port.

Meir Handed the Keys to Pyotr Dubrov

For six days the station held 11 people, a crowded swap NASA described as packing and unpacking two Dragons on Harmony. Crew-13’s Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney of NASA, Josh Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency, and Sergey Teteryatnikov of Roscosmos arrived Oct. 1 for a six-month research increment. On Oct. 4, in the traditional change-of-command, Dubrov took the station from Meir.

WHO REMAINS AFTER FREEDOM LEAVES

• ISS commander: Pyotr Dubrov, Roscosmos, in post until spring 2027.
• Soyuz crewmates: Anna Kikina of Roscosmos and Anil Menon of NASA, also through spring 2027.
• Crew-13: Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Josh Kutryk, and Sergey Teteryatnikov, on a six-month tour from Oct. 1.

That is seven, the normal ISS number. Menon, the NASA flyer on Soyuz, is the mirror of Fedyaev on Dragon. The next uncrewed departure is Cygnus XL, berthed at Unity since April 13; Menon and Hathaway loaded trash into it before Crew-12 left. SpaceX’s 35th cargo Dragon is next on the Florida manifest, and NASA folded that launch into Thursday’s briefing.

Pacific Splashdown Is Timed for 11:34 a.m.

NASA will resume return coverage at 10:20 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 8. The deorbit burn is listed at 10:46 a.m. Splashdown is listed at about 11:34 a.m. off California. A briefing follows at 1:15 p.m. with Bill Spetch and Dr. Liz Warren of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, SpaceX mission manager Lee Echerd, and ESA’s Andreas Mogensen.

THURSDAY RETURN MARKS

• 10:20 a.m. EDT: NASA return coverage begins.
• 10:46 a.m. EDT: Deorbit burn.
• 11:34 a.m. EDT: Targeted splashdown off California.
• 1:15 p.m. EDT: ISS briefing on the return and the CRS-35 cargo launch.

Times can still move with Pacific weather and recovery-team readiness, NASA said. Dragon is due in the water at 11:34 a.m. EDT. Recovery crews will lift the capsule, and the four will start the slower job of standing up in gravity again.