{"id":476240,"date":"2026-02-15T09:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476240\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:43:07","slug":"frances-sophie-adenot-and-crew-arrive-at-international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/476240\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s Sophie Adenot and crew arrive at International Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four astronauts docked at the International Space Station<\/a>\u00a0(ISS) on Saturday for a months-long research mission<\/a>, replacing a crew forced to return to Earth early over a medical issue.<\/p>\n

The US space agency’s Crew-12 arrived at the orbiting laboratory after a journey of about 34 hours that started with blastoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a SpaceX<\/a> Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

“We have bridged the legacy of humankind’s continuous presence in space spanning more than 25 years at this very site,” American astronaut Jessica Meir said after docking at the ISS.<\/p>\n

“As we look back at Earth from these windows, we are reminded that cooperation is not just possible, it is essential. Up here, there are no borders and hope is universal.”<\/p>\n

Other members of Crew-12 are American Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot<\/a> and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.<\/p>\n

Read more‘A born astronaut’: France’s Sophie Adenot makes history with flight to space<\/a><\/p>\n

The foursome are replacing Crew-11, which returned to Earth in January a month earlier than planned in the first medical evacuation in the space station’s history.<\/p>\n

The ISS, which orbits 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth, has since been staffed by a skeleton crew of three.<\/p>\n

NASA declined to disclose any details about the health issue that cut the previous mission short.<\/p>\n

Crew-12 will be one of the last crews to live aboard the football field-sized space station.<\/p>\n

Continuously inhabited for the last quarter-century, the aging ISS is scheduled to be pushed into Earth’s orbit before crashing into an isolated spot in the Pacific Ocean<\/a> in 2030.<\/p>\n

Microgravity and the human body<\/p>\n

During their eight months on the outpost, the astronauts will conduct many experiments, including research into the effects of microgravity on their bodies.<\/p>\n

Meir, who previously worked as a marine biologist studying animals in extreme environments, will serve as the crew’s commander.<\/p>\n

Adenot has become the second French woman to fly into space, following in the footsteps of Claudie Haignere, who spent time on the Mir space station.<\/p>\n

Among other research, she will test a system that uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to allow astronauts to carry out their own medical ultrasounds.<\/p>\n

“I am proud to bring France and Europe along on this incredible adventure that transcends borders,” Adenot said.<\/p>\n

“Count on me to share every step with you and bring a sparkle to the eyes of the French people.”<\/p>\n

The ISS, once a symbol of warming post-Cold War relations, has been a rare area of continued cooperation between the West and Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

However, the space station has not entirely avoided the tensions back on Earth.<\/p>\n

In November, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev — who had long been planned to be a member of Crew-12 — was suddenly taken off the mission.<\/p>\n

Reports from independent media in Russia suggested he had been photographing and sending classified information with his phone while training at a SpaceX facility. Russian space agency Roscosmos merely said he had been transferred to a different job.<\/p>\n

His replacement, Fedyaev, has already spent some time on the ISS as part of Crew-6 in 2023.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four astronauts docked at the International Space Station\u00a0(ISS) on Saturday for a months-long research mission, replacing a crew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,9693,188980,193282,28138,66,193283,188981,62719],"class_list":{"0":"post-476240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-international-space-station","11":"tag-jessica-meir","12":"tag-research-mission","13":"tag-russian-cosmonaut","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-skeleton-crew","16":"tag-sophie-adenot","17":"tag-space-station"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476240","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=476240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}