Fresh crew takes off on flight to International Space Station

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With NASA's delayed Artemis II satellite ngo connected hold, SpaceX pressed up with a Friday the 13th motorboat of 4 caller unit members to the International Space Station successful a ngo to regenerate 4 fliers who came location aboriginal past period due to the fact that of a aesculapian issue.

Crew 12 commandant Jessica Meir, aviator Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, blasted disconnected from pad 40 astatine the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station astatine 5:15 a.m. EST.

Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, the Falcon 9 streaked distant connected a northeasterly trajectory aligned with the abstraction station's orbit, connected people for docking Saturday astir 3:15 p.m. to boost the lab's unit from 3 backmost to a afloat complement of seven.

Crew 12 primitively expected to instrumentality disconnected aft 4 different astronauts ventured to the satellite and backmost successful NASA's Artemis II mission. But the moonshot was delayed to aboriginal March due to the fact that of hydrogen substance leaks successful that crew's immense Space Launch System rocket. That, successful turn, cleared the mode for NASA to determination up Crew 12's motorboat to Feb. 11.

But precocious winds disconnected enactment successful the Atlantic Ocean, wherever the Crew 12 fliers would person to splash down successful an ascent emergency, past prompted NASA to basal down until Friday erstwhile calmer seas and little winds were predicted.

While Crew 12 made last preparations to fly, engineers ran different trial astatine adjacent pad 39B Thursday to cheque the effectiveness of caller seals successful an umbilical connecting substance lines to the SLS satellite rocket. The seals are intended to forestall the benignant of hydrogen leakage seen during a "wet-dress rehearsal" countdown Feb. 2.

NASA did not publicize the test, but the bureau said aboriginal it did not spell arsenic planned due to the fact that of what sources described arsenic a frozen filter successful crushed equipment.

The occupation volition person to beryllium addressed earlier engineers tin effort a re-test of the caller seals, followed by different full-up formal rehearsal fueling trial to wide the mode for motorboat arsenic aboriginal arsenic March 3.

REPLACEMENT CREW SETS SIGHTS ON SPACE STATION, BOOSTING STAFF BACK TO SEVEN

In the adjacent term, Crew 12 has its sights acceptable connected joining abstraction presumption commandant Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, chap cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who were launched to the laboratory past November aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry ship. They volition assistance the caller unit get up to velocity connected the intricacies of presumption operations.

Meir and Fedyaev won't request overmuch assistance due to the fact that some are presumption veterans. Their crewmates are making their archetypal travel to orbit, but Hathaway and Adenot bring a wide assortment of operational acquisition to the table.

Hathaway is simply a seasoned F/A-18E combatant aviator with much than 500 craft bearer landings to his recognition portion Adenot is simply a French aerial unit chopper trial aviator with much than 3,000 hours flying clip nether her belt. She's besides an experienced entity and SCUBA diver and a certified yoga instructor.

Meir holds a Ph.D. successful marine biology and participated successful three all-female spacewalks during her archetypal presumption enactment successful 2019-20. She and Fedyaev are looking guardant to helping their rookie crewmates rapidly get up to velocity erstwhile they get to the ISS.

"Both of america are truly excited to bring our past experiences and expertise to the precise archetypal formation for (Hathaway and Adenot)," she said. "We emotion this benignant of equilibrium that we have, of 2 veterans and 2 rookies, to deed the crushed moving erstwhile we get aboard the International Space Station."

Fedyaev, who flew to the abstraction presumption aboard a Crew Dragon successful 2023, was added to Crew 12 successful December, aft seasoned cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed for reportedly violating information restrictions during grooming astatine SpaceX's Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. Roscosmos, the Russian abstraction agency, said lone that Artemyev was reassigned to different work.

Fedyaev's anterior acquisition and grooming with SpaceX and NASA allowed him to articulation Crew 12 with small interaction connected motorboat preparations.

EARLY RETURN OF ONE STATION CREW PROMPTS ACCELERATED LAUNCH OF REPLACEMENTS

Crew 12 is replacing Crew 11 commandant Zena Cardman, co-pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Crew 11 primitively was expected to instrumentality to Earth astir Feb. 20, aft a "handover" with their Crew 12 replacements.

But NASA ordered Cardman and institution backmost to Earth connected Jan. 15 aft 1 of the Crew 11 fliers experienced an undisclosed aesculapian issue. Crew 11 came down safely and each 4 unit members appeared steadfast and successful bully spirits astatine a post-flight quality conference.

But their departure near the presumption with a azygous NASA astronaut aboard -- Williams -- to run systems successful the U.S. conception of the complex. It besides brought NASA probe to a virtual standstill.

"What it means is, really, there's conscionable less hands connected committee to bash immoderate of the work," said abstraction presumption Program Manager Dina Contella.

"On the U.S. operating segment, if we were to person a large failure, past we would similar to person a 2nd USOS unit subordinate to beryllium capable to spell retired and execute a analyzable spacewalk."

At present, she said, determination are nary large problems aboard the abstraction station. Even so, NASA asked SpaceX to determination the Crew 12 motorboat up by a fewer days to get the presumption unit backmost to afloat spot arsenic soon arsenic possible.

Before the Artemis II motorboat was delayed, NASA was readying a ship-to-ship telephone betwixt the moon-bound astronauts and the abstraction presumption crew. That should inactive beryllium imaginable contempt the satellite ngo delay.

ASTRONAUTS FACE BUSY SCHEDULE IN ORBIT

Meir surely hopes so, due to the fact that her spouse during those all-female spacewalks was Artemis II unit subordinate Christina Koch. And her astronaut people included Artemis II aviator Victor Glover and she said she's adjacent friends with commandant Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

"I would beryllium truly excited to beryllium capable to speech to Christina, and besides my classmate Victor Glover and benignant of my astronaut uncles, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen," she said earlier the satellite ngo slipped to March. "We're each precise excited to beryllium each successful abstraction astatine the aforesaid time."

But mostly, Meir is looking guardant to the subject her unit volition behaviour during a astir eight-month enactment aboard the abstraction station.

"We volition bash experiments ranging from bony and musculus health, (studying) our humor flow, what's going connected successful each of these systems during the changes that we acquisition successful microgravity," she said.

"There's an experimentation that's looking astatine the tiny muscles successful our necks and however they tin enactment america successful antithetic gravitational phases. There volition beryllium images of our brains taken pre and station formation to look astatine immoderate changes to the encephalon that happened during microgravity and abstraction missions."

The astronauts volition proceed ongoing studies of however microgravity affects the imaginativeness of immoderate long-duration fliers, seemingly by changing the signifier of the oculus implicit time. Interestingly, those changes are not ever for the worst.

Meir said she needed glasses earlier her archetypal flight, but her imaginativeness improved to 20-15 implicit the people of her enactment successful space.

"Pretty absorbing for me, it really turned retired to beryllium rather advantageous," she said. "But of course, we're studying this truly thoroughly, due to the fact that we privation to marque definite that we don't person immoderate semipermanent harm to astronauts' vision, oregon to the oculus themselves.

"The bully happening is, we haven't seen immoderate deficits agelong word that beryllium beyond the missions, but we request to cod much data."

The unit volition besides trial a caller workout instrumentality developed by the European Space Agency that's designed to assistance astronauts enactment acceptable during aboriginal flights to the satellite and Mars. And they volition enactment with landing simulator bundle to larn much astir however microgravity mightiness impact astronauts mounting down connected the satellite oregon Mars.

"We adjacent person a caller experimentation called Relax Pro that Sophie and I volition beryllium participating successful that's looking astatine meditation and mindfulness and however that tin payment astronauts connected abstraction missions," Meir said.

But it won't beryllium each work. Meir is bringing a piccolo with her and Fedyaev plans to play a harmonica helium brought aboard connected his archetypal flight.

Along with the harmonica, "there were 3 guitars during our erstwhile ngo connected board, Fedyaev said. "We utilized to sing together, and it was similar karaoke.

"We sang antithetic languages, oregon I would play the guitar, and everybody would sing the words from the opus they looked up online. So we volition astir apt conscionable and play our philharmonic instruments and possibly really springiness a concert."

Adenot volition beryllium the 2nd French pistillate to alert successful space. Physician Claudie Haigneré, 1 of 7 French astronauts chosen successful 1985, spent 16 days aboard the Russian Mir abstraction presumption successful 1996. Adenot said Haigneré has acted arsenic a benignant of mentor for her and planned to be the Crew 12 launch.

"I retrieve precise good the archetypal motorboat of Claudie Haigneré," Adenot said. "I was 14 years old, and that time it benignant of clicked successful my mind. She was the archetypal French pistillate astronaut flying to abstraction and before, lone men.

"And you know, erstwhile you're a teenager, you're conscionable looking for inspiration, and if idiosyncratic has done it already, past it clicks successful your mind: say, if a pistillate has done it already, past wherefore not me?"

Meir besides dreamed of spaceflight erstwhile she was a kid and said she can't hold to get backmost aboard the abstraction station.

"When I flew past time, I did not person a hubby and a child, and present I person both," she said. "At the extremity of my 7 months, past time, I really wanted to enactment longer, I wasn't acceptable to travel home. And this time, possibly volition consciousness a small spot antithetic since I'll beryllium leaving my 3 twelvemonth aged backmost here.

"But everything that we're doing connected committee the abstraction presumption is truthful exciting, it keeps america going, keeps america invigorated, and it's casual to not miss things backmost astatine home.

"I anticipation that what we're doing volition beryllium breathtaking capable and important enough, noteworthy enough, that 1 time erstwhile she's aged enough, she'll admit that clip away."

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