NASA has restored full staffing aboard the International Space Station with the arrival of four new astronauts, following an unprecedented medical evacuation earlier this year.
The new crew reached the orbiting laboratory on Saturday aboard a spacecraft launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral a day earlier. The mission comes after NASA’s first in-orbit medical evacuation in the agency’s 65-year history of human spaceflight.
Last month, one of four astronauts already aboard the ISS suffered what officials described as a serious medical issue, forcing the crew to return to Earth more than a month ahead of schedule. NASA has declined to identify the astronaut or provide details about the illness, citing medical privacy. The early return temporarily reduced the station’s crew to just three members—one American and two Russians—prompting the agency to suspend spacewalks and scale back scientific research.
The newly arrived astronauts will spend eight to nine months aboard the station. The crew includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev.
Meir, a marine biologist, previously served aboard the ISS in 2019 and participated in the world’s first all-female spacewalk. Fedyaev, a former military pilot, has also flown to the station before. Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, becomes only the second French woman to travel to space, while Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy making his first spaceflight.
NASA said the four astronauts who were evacuated last month spent their first night back on Earth in a hospital before returning to Houston for follow-up care. The agency added that it did not modify its preflight medical screening procedures for the replacement crew.
With the station now back to full strength, NASA plans to resume normal research operations and prepare for upcoming spacewalks in the months ahead.