Cape Canaveral (United States) (AFP) – NASA sent four astronauts to the International Space Station this Friday, the last team in charge of a research mission in this laboratory that orbits 400 kilometers from Earth.

First modification: 02/13/2026 - 15:51 Last modification: 02/13/2026 - 20:22

The takeoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, took place at 05:15 local time (10:15 GMT) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, according to the video from the United States space agency. The team is expected to arrive at the ISS on Saturday.

The crew members are the Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, the Frenchwoman Sophie Adenot and the Russian Andrei Fedyaev.

"We left the Earth, but the Earth hasn't left us," Meir said as he ventured into space. "When we look at our planet from the outside, we quickly understand that we are all interconnected."

"We are one humanity," he asserted.

These four astronauts replace a crew that returned to Earth in January, a month ahead of schedule, in the first medical evacuation in the history of the space station.

NASA, however, has not offered details of the medical emergency that led to the return of that team.

The ISS has since been manned by a skeleton crew of three.

The rocket launch took place at dawn on Friday the 13th, in a challenge to superstition.

"I understand that this is the first time that NASA has carried out a takeoff on Friday the 13th," said Steve Stich, launch coordinator, laughing.

"These are amazing times," he added.

The operation was delayed for two days due to unfavorable weather forecasts, with strong winds forecast that could have complicated any emergency maneuvers.

This crew will be one of the last to live on the space station.

Continuously inhabited for the past 25 years, the aging ISS is scheduled to be thrust into Earth's orbit before crashing into an isolated spot in the Pacific Ocean in 2030.

Of the crew traveling to the ISS, Fedyaev is the only one with previous experience on the space station.

Microgravity and the human body

During their eight months at the orbital outpost, the four astronauts will conduct numerous experiments, including research into the effects of microgravity on their bodies.

Meir, who as a marine biologist has studied animals in extreme environments, will be the crew commander.

The ISS has been a symbol of the thaw after the Cold War and remains one of the few areas of cooperation between Western countries and Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

However, the space station has also suffered from geopolitical tensions. In November, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who was supposed to join Crew-12, was suddenly removed from the mission.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos simply indicated that he had been transferred to another position. His replacement, Fedyaev, has already spent time on the ISS as part of Crew-6 in 2023.

© 2026 AFP

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