Crew-12 Hatch Closure: Dragon Freedom Readies to Leave the ISS

The hatch between SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom and the International Space Station closed at 5:05 a.m. Central (6:05 a.m. Eastern), starting the journey home for the four members of Crew-12: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Undocking was scheduled for 7:05 a.m. Central (8:05 a.m. Eastern), with splashdown off the coast of California planned for the following morning, October 8.

Crew and handover

For Hathaway and Adenot, Crew-12 was a first trip to space. Meir, who served as commander of the station, will have totaled 442 days in space across two flights once the capsule splashes down. Fedyaev will have logged 423 days across two missions.

The departure came about a week after the arrival of Crew-13, which brought four new crew members and put 11 people aboard the station. Just days before, on the Sunday, Meir handed over command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov. Mission Control Houston said the crew had been given a go from both NASA and SpaceX for hatch close.

Hatch closure and preparations

On the Houston flight control floor, the team was led by NASA flight director Brandon Lloyd, with Rob Hayhurst as Capcom, the capsule communicator speaking with the crew. NASA astronaut Anil Menon monitored the undocking operations from the station's cupola. Menon confirmed the closed indication on the hatch and received Houston's go to close the A-pass hatch.

Once inside, the crew suited up and were seated, and they were to stay in their suits through undocking. A crew member reported that the A-pass hatch and A-pass equalization valves were closed, ready for the Dragon IDA vestibule depress. Houston said it would wait on that step until good suit leak checks were confirmed. Suit donning was reported complete, and the crew received a go for suit leak checks. The vestibule is the short tunnel between the Dragon and station hatches, exposed to the vacuum of space once depressurized. Before the coverage closed, the Dragon crew reported four good seats and Houston saw the same.

Over the previous days the crew packed Dragon with cargo. Meir and Hathaway removed cold bags and polar freezers, which store cold research samples and experiments, and loaded them into Freedom. The science and cargo are offloaded after the crew is out following splashdown, and samples go to researchers for final analysis within a few hours.

By the numbers

• Freedom arrived at the station 235 days earlier and will have spent 237 days in space by splashdown.
• It was the fifth flight for this Crew Dragon, which also supported Crew-4, Axiom Mission 2, Axiom Mission 3 and NASA SpaceX Crew-9.
• During Crew-12's 235 days aboard, seven visiting vehicles arrived and seven departed.
• Meir conducted four spacewalks, bringing her career total to seven; Adenot conducted three.
• The crew orbited the Earth 3,792 times and traveled over 100 million statute miles.

Splashdown was expected at approximately 10:34 a.m. Central (11:34 a.m. Eastern). Weather was reported go for undocking and splashdown, with winds, visibility and wave heights acceptable. After undocking the crew could take off their suits and have an off-duty period inside Dragon ahead of splashdown.