The Secret Base of the Rebel Black Dot Society: The Stars My Destination: Crew-12 Launch

Monday, August 17, 2026

The Stars My Destination: Crew-12 Launch

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Space Age
13 February 2026: Commander Jessica Meir (N.A.S.A.), Pilot Jack Hathaway (N.A.S.A.), Mission Specialist Sophie Adenot (E.S.A.), & Mission Specialist Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos) lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's SLC-40 aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom (C212) atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The quartet docked the Freedom with the International Space Station for an intended seven-month mission to the orbital laboratory.

Meir is a veteran of a previous spaceflight (Soyuz MS-15 for Expeditions 61 & 62) & Fedyaev is a veteran of a previous spaceflight (Crew-6 for Expeditions 68 & 69); Hathaway & Adenot are rookies. Crew-12 served as members of I.S.S. Expedition 74 & are serving as members of Expedition 75.

Commentary: I chose this photograph of the crew because of Jack Hathaway's awesome moustache, which is a latter development & not present in many of the pre-flight promotional photos.

Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was assigned to Crew-12 until December 2025, when he was replaced by Fedyaev after being accused to spying on SpaceX, violating the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Commentary: Just the Russians being Russian; so reliably treacherous.

Crew-12 is the fifth flight of the Freedom C212.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Crew-12 & the Freedom
The Aquabats!, "Go Humans, Go!" from Finally! (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: As far as Launch America & the Commercial Crew Program are concerned, "We're in now now."

I am absolutely charmed by the photograph below, of the Crew Dragon Freedom stop its Falcon 9 rocket with Artemis II, the Orion Integrity atop its S.L.S. rocket, in the background, taken on 11 February 2026.

Monday, August 17, 2026

The Stars My Destination: Crew-12 Launch

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