NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission, carrying ESA’s French astronaut Sophie Adenot, lifted off on Friday 13 February at 5:15 local time (11:15 CET) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft was also carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

The Dragon spacecraft docked to the ISS on Saturday 14 February at 21:15 CET.  “We’ve just docked after 34 hours of free flight, everything is nominal and the Earth is a really, really beautiful sight from up here,” said Sophie Adenot. She added: “I’m proud to be taking France and Europe with me on this incredible adventure that transcends borders.” Once all required checks were complete, the Crew-12 members entered the ISS at around 23:30 CET.

Sophie Adenot’s Epsilon mission on the ISS will last nine months. During this time, she will be performing more than 200 experiments, of which several have been prepared and will be monitored by the CADMOS centre for the development of microgravity applications and space operations at CNES’s field centre in Toulouse. One of the French experiments, ChlorISS, is dedicated to youngsters. Sophie Adenot will be conducting this experiment on the ISS along with 4,500 classes all over France.