SpaceX and NASA launch astronauts to relieve bare-bones crew at ISS

(CNN) — A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts is on its way to the International Space Station, a journey that will bring the orbiting laboratory back to full staff after a month of operating with a skeleton crew.

The mission, called Crew-12, lifted off at around 5:17 a.m. ET Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS Saturday afternoon.

NASA, which contracts SpaceX for the astronauts’ transport to and from the space station, had sought to expedite the Crew-12 launch — originally slated for takeoff on February 15 — due to the staffing situation. But the agency had to forgo two possible launch windows on Wednesday and Thursday because of unfavorable weather along the rocket’s flight path.

SpaceX could have expedited the launch even more, as the spacecraft and rocket flying this mission were processed ahead of schedule, noted Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, in a Friday morning news briefing. But NASA also had to get the astronauts ready to fly.

“When you look at the totality of a mission, it’s getting the vehicles, the hardware and the software ready — and also the crew,” Stich said. “And so in this case, crew training was what drove t...