On the evening of February 13, 2026, something remarkable unfolded at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Under the dim, predawn sky, the Falcon 9 rocket—developed by SpaceX—roared to life, its nine Merlin engines devouring fuel at a staggering rate of 2.65 million liters per second. The launch, which occurred at 5:17 AM Eastern Time (7:17 PM in Korea), marked another milestone for NASA and its commercial partner, SpaceX, as the Crew-12 mission blasted off toward the International Space Station (ISS) with four astronauts aboard. It was a display of precision, power, and international cooperation, broadcast live across the globe, and watched with pride and anticipation by space enthusiasts everywhere.
According to NASA, the Falcon 9 carried the Crew Dragon spacecraft—named Crew-12 for this mission—on a journey that would last 34 hours, culminating in an afternoon docking with the ISS on February 14. The crew roster was a testament to the spirit of global collaboration: Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway from NASA (USA), Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency (France), and Andrey Padayev from Roscosmos (Russia). These four would soon join the three astronauts already aboard the ISS, bringing human presence on the orbiting platform back up to its standard complement of seven.
The mission’s objectives go well beyond simply ferrying astronauts to and from the station. Over the next eight months, Crew-12 will be hard at work conducting a range of scientific, technological, and medical experiments. Among their tasks: investigating pneumonia-causing bacteria, performing blood circulation studies using ultrasound, and running simulations to assess how sudden gravitational shifts—like those experienced during a lunar landing—affect the human body and cognition. It’s a far cry from the early days of spaceflight, when just surviving in orbit was considered an achievement. Now, the ISS is a bustling laboratory, its crew pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in microgravity.
But the story of this launch, as reported by Yonhap News and other outlets, is as much about the journey as the destination. The Crew-12 mission is the twelfth long-duration ISS crew deployment launched by SpaceX under NASA’s commercial crew program since May 2020. This partnership has fundamentally changed the economics and logistics of reaching the ISS. For nearly a decade after NASA retired its shuttle fleet, the only way for American astronauts to reach the station was aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft—a privilege that cost NASA a hefty 90 billion KRW (about $75 million) per seat. With SpaceX’s Crew Dragon now in regular service, the arrangement has shifted: NASA and Roscosmos exchange seats, each agency sending astronauts on the other’s vehicle at no direct cost.
The ISS itself, a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation, is a marvel in its own right. Spanning the size of a football field and orbiting some 420 kilometers above Earth, it typically hosts seven astronauts, though that number swells to eleven twice a year for brief handovers. Its annual operating budget hovers around $3 billion, a figure that underscores both the station’s complexity and its value as a platform for science and diplomacy.
Yet, even the best-laid plans can be upended by the realities of spaceflight. Just a month before Crew-12’s launch, the previous crew—Crew-11—was forced to return to Earth early after one member developed a health problem requiring urgent diagnosis. According to Seoul-based Newsis, this marked the first time in NASA’s 65-year history that a crew was medically evacuated from the ISS. Their early departure left the station with only three residents for nearly a month—a rare occurrence in the ISS’s 25-year history. NASA, aware of the staffing shortfall and the importance of maintaining a robust crew, scrambled to advance Crew-12’s launch, though weather delays on February 11 and 12 forced a brief postponement.
For South Korea, the February launch was more than a distant spectacle. It was a vivid reminder of the nation’s growing role in the global space community. Just two years earlier, the Artemis project—a NASA-led initiative to return humans to the Moon—had offered South Korea the chance to send a CubeSat on Artemis II. That opportunity was initially declined due to budget constraints, but by May 2, 2025, a new agreement was signed, securing Korea’s participation. As reported by NASA and Donga Ilbo, the Korean CubeSat will now hitch a ride on Artemis II, marking a significant step forward for the country’s space ambitions.
Back on Earth, the economics of space exploration remain a hot topic. The cost of South Korea’s Nuri rocket launch—about 120 billion KRW—has been compared to other large-scale government projects, such as the 2030 Busan World Expo bid (121.7 billion KRW) and even compensation programs for historical injustices. The debate, chronicled by Ohmynews and Hankyoreh, is not just about numbers; it’s about priorities. Should public funds go toward space launches, international expos, or redressing past wrongs? Each choice reflects a different vision of the nation’s future.
South Korea’s space agency isn’t resting on its laurels. In March 2024, at the Korea Aerospace Industries’ first helicopter division in Sacheon, officials pledged to support the country’s burgeoning space cluster—though, as critics noted, actual budget allocations have sometimes lagged behind the rhetoric. Nonetheless, the agency has announced plans to slash launch costs by 90% by 2035, aiming to do so through the development of reusable rocket technology. This mirrors the approach taken by SpaceX, whose reusable Falcon 9 boosters have revolutionized the economics of spaceflight and inspired a new generation of engineers and entrepreneurs.
SpaceX itself has undergone its own evolution. Once laser-focused on Mars, the company—under the leadership of Elon Musk—has shifted its near-term sights to the Moon, aligning with NASA’s Artemis program. Some might see this as a pragmatic pivot; others as a sign of Musk’s ability to adapt and anticipate where the real opportunities lie. Either way, the message is clear: the future of space is being written not just by governments, but by private enterprise and international partnerships.
As Crew-12 settles in aboard the ISS, their work will advance not only science, but also the cause of peaceful cooperation in orbit. The launch stands as a testament to what’s possible when nations and organizations—sometimes rivals on the ground—come together above the clouds. For South Korea, and for the world, the sky is no longer the limit.