International crew set to dock at space station
Four astronauts will dock at the International Space Station on Saturday for a months-long research mission to replace crew members who had to return to Earth early due to a medical issue.
The US space agency’s international Crew-12 lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida early Friday.
After more than 30 hours of flight, the astronauts are expected to arrive at the ISS and dock around 3:15 PM Eastern time (2015 GMT).
Crew-12 consists of Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
“We left the Earth, but the Earth did not abandon us,” Meir said as the astronauts went into space. “When we look at our planet from above, it becomes immediately clear that everything is connected.”
“We are one people.”
The rovers replace Crew-11, which returned to Earth in January, a month ahead of schedule, in the first medical evacuation in the space station’s history.
A core crew of three has been on duty on the ISS since then, which orbits 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth.
NASA declined to disclose any details about the health issue that interrupted the previous mission.
When the astronauts arrive, they will be among the last crew living on the football field-sized space station.
The aging ISS, which has been continuously inhabited for the past quarter-century, is scheduled to be propelled into Earth orbit before crashing into an isolated spot in the Pacific Ocean in 2030.
– Microgravity and the human body –
During their eight months at the outpost, the astronauts will conduct many experiments, including investigating the effects of microgravity on their bodies.
Meir, who previously worked as a marine biologist studying animals in harsh environments, will serve as the crew’s commander.
Adenot became the second French woman to fly into space, following in the footsteps of Claudie Haignere, who spent time on the Mir space station.
Among other research, it will test a system using artificial intelligence and augmented reality that will allow astronauts to perform their own medical ultrasounds.
Once a symbol of warming post-Cold War relations, the ISS has become a rare site of sustained cooperation between the West and Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
But the space station could not completely avoid tensions on Earth.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, long planned to become a member of Crew-12, was abruptly dismissed in November.
Reports from independent media in Russia suggested that he was taking photos and sending classified information on his phone while training at the SpaceX facility. Russian space agency Roscosmos said only that he had been transferred to a different job.
His replacement, Fedyaev, has already spent some time on the ISS as part of Crew-6 in 2023.
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