Four astronauts dock at space station after medical evacuation

The International Space Station is back to full capacity. On Saturday, a SpaceX rocket delivered four astronauts—NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France's Sophie Adenot, and Russia's Andrei Fedyaev—to the orbiting laboratory, restoring the station's crew after an unexpected disruption.

Last month, NASA conducted its first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched to the ISS last summer fell ill in orbit, forcing an early return for the entire crew. That left only three people aboard to maintain the station—a skeleton crew that forced NASA to pause spacewalks and scale back research operations. The arrival of this new team signals a return to normal operations.

Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have both been to the station before. Meir made history in 2019 by participating in the first all-female spacewalk. Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, becomes only the second French woman to reach space. Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy. They'll stay aboard for eight to nine months.

When the hatches opened, the seven crew members—the four newcomers plus the three remaining residents—embraced and exchanged high-fives. Adenot's first word to the station was "Bonjour," a moment that drew support from French President Emmanuel Macron, who posted that "in space as on Earth, it is by uniting our strengths that we accomplish the extraordinary."

NASA has not disclosed which astronaut fell ill or the details of the medical emergency, citing privacy. The crew spent their first night back in a hospital before returning to Houston. The agency confirmed it made no changes to preflight medical screening for the replacement crew—a reminder that even in space, the unexpected still finds its way in.

With the station fully staffed again, the research and maintenance work that kept the three remaining astronauts stretched thin can resume at full pace.