New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA's first medical evacuation.

SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab on Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.

“It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit. “That was quite a ride,” replied the crew's commander, Jessica Meir.

NASA had to put spacewalks on hold and deferred other duties while awaiting the arrival of NASA’s Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. They'll join three other astronauts — one American and two Russians — who kept the space station running the past month.

Satisfied with medical procedures already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff and no new diagnostic equipment was packed. An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive on Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut’s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.

It was the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA cut short a mission for medical reasons.

With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station’s medical gear, said deputy program manager Dina Contella. “But there are a lot of things that are just not practical and so that’s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,” she said earlier this week.

In preparation for moon and Mars trips where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.

They also will demonstrate their moon-landing skills in a simulated test.

Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia’s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere traveled to Cape Canaveral to cheer her on.

Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. Just before liftoff, Fedyaev led the crew in a cry of “Poyekhali" — Russian for “Let's Go” — the word uttered at liftoff by the world's first person in space, the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.

On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.

Meir wasn’t sure astronauts would return to the moon during her career. “Now we’re right here on the precipice of the Artemis II mission,” she said ahead of liftoff. “The fact that they will be in space at the same time as us … it’s so cool to be an astronaut now, it’s so exciting.”

SpaceX launched the latest crew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Elon Musk’s company is preparing its neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the super-sized Starships, which NASA needs to land astronauts on the moon.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft is seen during a time exposure as it lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, as a second streak just to the left is the booster on a return landing at the launch pad. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft is seen during a time exposure as it lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, as a second streak just to the left is the booster on a return landing at the launch pad. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 . (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Crew 12 mission Commander Jessica Meir, left, and ESA astronaut Sophia Adenot, of France, wave as they leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 . (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Crew 12 ESA astronaut Sophia Adenot, of France, leaves the Operations and Checkout building before heading to pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Crew 12 mission astronauts, from left, pilot Jack Hathaway, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, commander Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophia Adenot, of France, leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft stands ready for launch on pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026 . (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Crew 12 astronauts, from left, pilot Jack Hathaway, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, commander Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophia Adenot, of France, leave the Operations and Checkout building before heading to pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, on a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 1, 2026--

For years, Susan watched her two children collapse without warning. Episodes of sudden, full-body muscle weakness that came and went — sometimes lasting minutes, sometimes hours. Between episodes, they looked like any other healthy kids. And that was the problem.

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Susan, a single mother in a small town in New Zealand, took her children to doctor after doctor. Blood panels came back normal. She was told the symptoms were stress-related. No referrals. No follow-up. No answers.

She was raising two children with a condition no one could name — and carrying the weight of that question alone.

"I watched my children go from running and playing to being unable to stand," Susan said. "Every time I brought them in, the tests said they were fine. I started to feel like the system had decided I was the problem, not their symptoms."

After her own research, Susan ordered Dante Labs Whole Genome Sequencing for both children. The reports identified pathogenic variants associated with periodic paralysis — an ultra-rare inherited condition affecting approximately 1 in 100,000 people. Standard panels test just a few genes. Whole genome sequencing reads the full DNA.

The variants had been there since birth. Undetected.

When Susan brought the reports to her children's medical team, everything changed. Neurologists accepted the findings. Geneticists followed. Her children now have access to the specialists they needed — clinicians working to confirm the findings, identify triggers, and build a management plan.

"For years, no one listened," Susan said. "Now the best specialists are paying attention. Now my kids have a name for what is happening to them — and a medical team that believes it."

"Behind every genome is a person living inside questions that traditional technologies have not yet answered," said Andrea Riposati, co-founder and CEO of Dante Labs. "The genome provides an unbiased view of every person’s code. We built this company for families like hers."

Susan's name has been anonymized to protect her family's privacy.

About Dante Labs

We are a leading provider of AI-powered genomics solutions, dedicated to accelerating discovery and improving patient outcomes through advanced computational biology tools.

Dante Labs Whole Genome Sequencing Andrea Riposati