A SpaceX rocket carried U.S., French and Russian astronauts toward the International Space Station on Friday, aiming to restore full staffing after NASA earlier sent astronauts home in its first medical evacuation. The four new crew members were expected to dock with the orbiting lab on Saturday, completing the replacement of colleagues who had returned to Earth early last month. The mission stretches to an expected eight- to nine-month term, continuing the station’s routine operations with a fresh team after weeks of adjustments tied to the medical situation.
SpaceX’s Launch Control radioed once the spacecraft reached orbit that “Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” and the crew commander, Jessica Meir, replied, “That was quite a ride.” While NASA and SpaceX moved quickly to schedule the replacements, NASA had put other work on hold during the period of medical concern, including deferring spacewalks and other duties until the new Americans on board—Meir and Jack Hathaway—along with France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev, arrived.
NASA ordered what it described as no extra checkups for the departing crew ahead of liftoff. It also did not pack new diagnostic equipment for the mission, relying instead on systems and procedures already in place aboard the station. According to NASA, an ultrasound machine already at the ISS for research went into heavy use beginning Jan. 7 when it was used on the ill crew member, though the agency has not publicly identified the astronaut or the health issue.
All four astronauts who splashed down in the Pacific near San Diego after the medical evacuation returned straight to the hospital, NASA said, and the agency noted that the incident was the first time in 65 years that it cut short a human spaceflight mission for medical reasons. The new crew’s arrival closes the staffing gap left by those departures, while the station has continued to run during the interim with three astronauts—one American and two Russians—who kept operations steady.
In addition to returning the ISS to full complement, NASA said the replacement mission is designed to validate medical technologies intended for longer-term and more distant exploration. The crew will test a filter intended to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try an ultrasound system that uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality rather than experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins as part of a blood clot study.
The mission also includes procedures meant to reinforce astronaut readiness for future deep-space operations. NASA said the crew will demonstrate moon-landing skills in a simulated test, drawing attention in part because Artemis II—the first lunar voyage in more than half a century—is preparing for an upcoming launch attempt. As that parallel work continues, NASA’s administrator Jared Isaacman said after Friday’s liftoff that testing continues at the Artemis pad, where the Space Launch System moon rocket remains poised for its next launch effort.
Isaacman said a practice fueling last week produced hydrogen fuel leaks and that two seals have since been replaced, along with a mini fueling that was conducted after the repairs. He stressed that no launch date would be set until additional fueling tests—potentially multiple—are completed, and he noted that the earliest Artemis II could launch is March 3. In parallel, Elon Musk’s company launched the Crew-12 replacements from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while preparing a neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad needed for NASA’s moon plans.
Adenot is the second French woman to launch to space, NASA said, and she previously inspired by Claudie Haignere’s 1996 mission to Russia’s Mir on the station Mir. Hathaway is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are returning to the ISS for a second station trip; on her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk alongside Christina Koch, who is among the Artemis II astronauts slated to fly around the moon. Meir told reporters ahead of liftoff that it was “so cool to be an astronaut now” and emphasized the fact that the crews will be in space at the same time, adding that she was excited by the shared timing of station operations and the Artemis II lunar mission.