British News Agency

There was uncertainty about whether the mission would proceed successfully after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration earlier this week grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket due to a malfunction in its ignition system.

The ban on the Falcon 9 has been lifted, and the launch has been scheduled for Wednesday. In November, there was also a sudden crew change when Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was replaced by his compatriot Andrey Fedyaev.

Since Crew 11 returned to Earth in January following an astronaut’s illness, only three people have been on board the space station, and NASA has not yet disclosed what happened to the astronaut. In addition to Fedyaev, Crew 12 consists of Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as French astronaut Sophie Adenot.

The astronauts are the last crew members remaining on the space station, which orbits about 400 kilometers above Earth and has been operating continuously for a quarter of a century. The station is now beginning to age and is planned to be deorbited in 2030 to reenter over a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.