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Freedom251 › Blog › Crew Dragon

ISS Crew 12 Heads Home as Crew 13 Begins a Six-Month Mission

By Freedom251 Team · · 2 min read

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Four members of the International Space Station’s Crew 12 undocked on October 7, 2026, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom. Their return to Earth was scheduled for the following day; the October 7 report did not confirm that splashdown had occurred. Crew 13, which arrived on October 1, had taken over the station’s expedition work and was expected to stay for about six months.

Who left the space station, and when?

Crew 12 undocked at 8:05 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 7, according to CBS News space consultant William Harwood’s report, updated at 9:16 a.m. EDT that morning. The four astronauts aboard Freedom were commander Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev.

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The report described the capsule’s return as a plan, not a completed event. It listed a deorbit burn at 10:46 a.m. ET on Thursday, October 8, lasting nine minutes and 20 seconds, followed by a Pacific Ocean splashdown off California at 11:34 a.m. ET. Those times were scheduled; the report does not establish whether the landing ultimately took place as planned. CBS News’ October 7 report.

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Who took over, and what does the six-month tour mean?

Crew 13 had already arrived at the station on October 1, so the two crews overlapped before Crew 12’s departure. CBS News identified the incoming astronauts as Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov. Their expected six-month stay is the planned tour referenced in the headline—not a duration already completed.

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There was also a station command handover. Before leaving, Meir transferred command to Pyotr Dubrov, commander of the Soyuz MS-29 crew. Dubrov described the role as “it’s a great honor and a great responsibility to be the commander of such a magnificent place like International Space Station.”

How Crew 12’s reported stay compares with the next tours

CBS News reported Crew 12 spent 237 days and five hours in orbit, completing 3,792 orbits and traveling nearly 101 million miles. These are figures attributed to the report, not independently verified here. The same report said Meir would have accumulated 442 days in space after this mission; it also reported four spacewalks for Meir and three for Adenot during Crew 12’s mission.

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Crew or mission Status in the October 7 report Duration
Crew 12 Undocked October 7, 2026; return was scheduled for October 8 237 days and five hours reported by CBS News
Crew 13 Arrived October 1; aboard after Crew 12 departed Six months expected, according to CBS News
Soyuz MS-29 crew Launched from Baikonur on July 14, according to CBS News Eight months planned, according to CBS News

The figures are not directly equivalent: Crew 12’s number describes a reported elapsed stay, while the six- and eight-month figures describe planned mission durations.

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What the departing commander said

Meir described the emotional split between leaving the station and returning to loved ones: “We will be leaving our friends,” she said. “But we know that we are going home to our friends, to our families, to all of our team members on the ground. So it’s a lot of mixed, swirling emotions for all of us when one leaves a home like this up on the space station.”

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During departure radio communications, she also thanked the teams supporting the expedition: “We just wanted to give an enormous thank you to all of the team, our friends and colleagues on board the International Space Station, everybody in Houston, everybody at SpaceX, all around the world, with all of our international partners,” Meir radioed. “We have had the most incredible of expeditions … and we will never forget it, and never forget all of your hard work.”

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