{"id":472416,"date":"2026-02-13T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472416\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:18:10","slug":"new-astronauts-launch-to-the-international-space-station-after-medical-evacuation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/472416\/","title":{"rendered":"New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station<\/a> on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA\u2019s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab on Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues<\/a> last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,\u201d SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit. \u201cThat was quite a ride,\u201d replied the crew’s commander, Jessica Meir.<\/p>\n

NASA had to put spacewalks on hold and deferred other duties while awaiting the arrival of Americans Meir and Jack Hathaway, France\u2019s Sophie Adenot and Russia\u2019s Andrei Fedyaev. They’ll join three other astronauts \u2014 one American and two Russians \u2014 who kept the space station running the past month.<\/p>\n

Satisfied with medical procedures<\/a> already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff and no new diagnostic equipment was packed. An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive on Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut\u2019s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.<\/p>\n

It was the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA cut short a mission for medical reasons.<\/p>\n

With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station\u2019s medical gear, said deputy program manager Dina Contella. \u201cBut there are a lot of things that are just not practical and so that\u2019s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,\u201d she said earlier this week.<\/p>\n

In preparation for moon and Mars trips where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.<\/p>\n

They also will demonstrate their moon-landing skills in a simulated test.<\/p>\n

Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia\u2019s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere cheered her on from the Florida launch site, wishing her \u201cBon vol,” French for \u201cHave a good flight,” and \u201cAd astra,” Latin for “To the stars.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would have been a quiet joy with pride for Sophie, but it was so hugely emotional to see her with a successful launch,” Haignere said.<\/p>\n

Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. Just before liftoff, Fedyaev led the crew in a cry of \u201cPoyekhali” \u2014 Russian for \u201cLet’s Go\u201d \u2014 the word uttered at liftoff by the world’s first person in space, the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.<\/p>\n

On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon<\/a> as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.<\/p>\n

Meir wasn\u2019t sure astronauts would return to the moon during her career. \u201cNow we\u2019re right here on the precipice of the Artemis II mission,\u201d she said ahead of liftoff. \u201cThe fact that they will be in space at the same time as us \u2026 it\u2019s so cool to be an astronaut now, it\u2019s so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX launched the latest crew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Elon Musk\u2019s company is preparing its neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the super-sized Starships, which NASA needs to land astronauts on the moon.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[192091,33143,49,48,192067,9693,188983,188980,99320,14479,307,66,188981,192092],"class_list":{"0":"post-472416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-andrei-fedyaev","9":"tag-astronauts","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-claudie-haignere","13":"tag-international-space-station","14":"tag-jack-hathaway","15":"tag-jessica-meir","16":"tag-medical-evacuation","17":"tag-medical-procedures","18":"tag-nasa","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-sophie-adenot","21":"tag-space-station-mir"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}