Bold start: Four fresh explorers arrive at the International Space Station to replace a crew that evacuated due to health concerns.
SpaceX ferried the United States, French, and Russian astronauts to the orbital laboratory, 277 miles (446 km) above Earth, just a day after launch from Cape Canaveral. The newcomers are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot, and Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev.
The previous crew had to withdraw after one member experienced a serious medical issue, leaving the station with only three occupants—one American and two Russians. NASA paused spacewalks and reduced research activity as a result.
Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have already spent time on the space station. In 2019, Meir participated in the first all-female spacewalk during her initial mission.
Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, becomes only the second French woman to fly in space, while Hathaway serves as a captain in the U.S. Navy.
Video released by NASA shows the four newcomers drifting through the hatch from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft into the space station, where Adenot greeted the crew with a cheerful “Bonjour.”
The quartet will live aboard the ISS for about eight to nine months, conducting experiments and maintaining operations.
By contrast, last month’s medical evacuation marks NASA’s first in 65 years of spaceflight. NASA has chosen not to disclose the identity of the ill astronaut or the specifics of the incident due to privacy concerns. The evacuated crew member and three others returned to Earth more than a month earlier than planned, spending their first night in a hospital before heading home to Houston.
