2026-02-13T05:19:00-0500 / CBS新闻
由于美国国家航空航天局（NASA）推迟的阿尔忒弥斯二号月球任务处于停滞状态，SpaceX在2月13日（星期五）如期发射了四名新机组人员前往国际空间站，以替换上月因一名机组人员出现医疗问题而提前返回地球的四名宇航员。
机组12号指挥官杰西卡·梅尔（Jessica Meir）、飞行员杰克·哈撒韦（Jack Hathaway）、欧洲航天局宇航员索菲·阿德纳（Sophie Adenot）和俄罗斯宇航员安德烈·费佳耶夫（Andrey Fedyaev）在佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空部队基地的40号发射台，于美国东部时间凌晨5:15乘坐SpaceX的”龙”飞船（Crew Dragon capsule），搭乘猎鹰9号火箭升空。
[配图：2026年2月13日，美国佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角太空部队基地，SpaceX的猎鹰9号火箭搭载龙飞船执行Crew-12任务发射升空。Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images]
猎鹰9号在黎明前的天空中划出一道东北向轨迹，与空间站轨道对接，预定于周六下午3:15左右与空间站对接，使空间站人员从3人增加到满员7人。
机组12号原计划在美国国家航空航天局阿尔忒弥斯二号任务中，四名宇航员登月返回后发射。但由于该机组的巨型太空发射系统（SLS）火箭出现氢燃料泄漏，登月计划推迟至3月初。这反过来又为NASA将机组12号的发射提前至2月11日扫清了障碍。
但大西洋沿岸的强风（机组12号在紧急情况下需要在此海域溅落）迫使NASA推迟至周五，据预测届时海面平静、风力降低。
在机组12号进行最后准备的同时，工程师周四在附近的39B号发射台进行了另一项测试，检查连接燃料管线与SLS月球火箭的脐带缆上新密封件的有效性。这些密封件旨在防止2月2日”湿彩排”倒计时期间出现的氢泄漏问题。
NASA没有公开这次测试，但该机构随后表示，测试未按计划进行，据消息人士称，原因是地面设备中的过滤器结冰。
在工程师重新测试新密封件之前，必须解决这一问题，随后进行另一次全面彩排燃料测试，以最早在3月3日发射。
替补机组瞄准空间站，将人员配备恢复至7人
短期内，机组12号的目标是与空间站指挥官谢尔盖·库德-斯韦尔丘科夫（Sergey Kud-Sverchkov）、同伴宇航员谢尔盖·米卡耶夫（Sergey Mikaev）和NASA宇航员克里斯·威廉姆斯（Chris Williams）会合。他们去年11月乘坐俄罗斯”联盟号”渡轮飞船前往空间站，将帮助新机组人员熟悉空间站操作的复杂性。
梅尔和费佳耶夫不需要太多帮助，因为两人都是空间站的资深成员。他们的同事都是首次进入轨道，但哈撒韦和阿德纳带来了丰富的操作经验。
[配图：机组12号在SpaceX位于加利福尼亚州霍桑的火箭制造设施进行训练。从左至右：费佳耶夫、哈撒韦、梅尔和阿德纳。SpaceX]
哈撒韦是一名经验丰富的F/A-18E战斗机飞行员，有500多次航母起降记录，而阿德纳是法国空军直升机试飞员，飞行时间超过3000小时。她还是一名经验丰富的跳伞和水肺潜水员，以及认证瑜伽教练。
梅尔拥有海洋生物学博士学位，在2019-2020年首次驻留期间参与了三次全女性太空行走。她和费佳耶夫期待在抵达国际空间站后，帮助他们的新手同事快速上手。
“我们俩都非常兴奋，能把我们过去的经验和专业知识带到（哈撒韦和阿德纳的）首次飞行中，”她说，”我们喜欢这种平衡——两名资深成员和两名新手，一登上国际空间站就能迅速投入工作。”
费佳耶夫曾在2023年乘坐”龙”飞船前往空间站，他在2023年12月加入机组12号，而资深宇航员奥莱格·阿尔捷米耶夫（Oleg Artemyev）被调任其他工作。俄罗斯航天局（Roscosmos）仅表示阿尔捷米耶夫被重新分配到其他工作。
费佳耶夫与SpaceX和NASA的过往经验和培训使他能够加入机组12号，对发射准备工作影响甚微。
因一名机组人员提前返回，替补机组加速发射
机组12号正在替换机组11号指挥官泽娜·卡德曼（Zena Cardman）、副驾驶迈克·芬克（Mike Fincke）、日本宇航员由里启（Kimiya Yui）和宇航员奥莱格·普拉托诺夫（Oleg Platonov）。机组11号原计划在与机组12号交接后于2月20日返回地球。
但美国国家航空航天局在1月15日命令卡德曼及其同伴返回地球，原因是机组11号中有一名成员出现不明原因的医疗问题。机组11号安全返回，四名机组人员在会后新闻发布会上看起来健康状况良好，精神状态良好。
但他们的离开使空间站只剩下一名美国宇航员——威廉姆斯——来操作空间站美国舱段的系统。这也使NASA的研究工作几乎停滞。
“这意味着，实际上，我们缺乏人手来完成一些工作，”空间站项目经理迪娜·孔泰拉（Dina Contella）表示。
“在美俄联合运营的舱段，如果发生重大故障，我们希望能有第二名美国舱段机组人员能够执行复杂的太空行走任务。”
她说，目前空间站没有重大问题。即便如此，NASA还是要求SpaceX将机组12号的发射提前几天，以使空间站人员尽快恢复满员。
在阿尔忒弥斯二号发射推迟前，NASA曾计划让登月宇航员与空间站机组人员进行船对船通话。尽管月球任务推迟，这仍然可能实现。
机组人员在轨道上行程繁忙
梅尔无疑对此充满期待，因为她在全女性太空行走中的搭档是阿尔忒弥斯二号机组成员克里斯蒂娜·科赫（Christina Koch）。她的宇航员班级包括阿尔忒弥斯二号飞行员维克多·格洛弗（Victor Glover），她说她与指挥官里德·怀斯曼（Reid Wiseman）和加拿大宇航员杰里米·汉森（Jeremy Hansen）是亲密朋友。
“我会很兴奋能与克里斯蒂娜交谈，还有我的同学维克多·格洛弗，以及我的宇航员’叔叔’里德·怀斯曼和杰里米·汉森，”她在月球任务推迟至3月前说道，”我们都非常期待能同时在太空中。”
但最重要的是，梅尔期待机组在空间站进行为期约8个月的科学实验。
“我们将进行从骨骼和肌肉健康、血液流动研究，到微重力下所有系统变化的实验，”她说。
“有一项实验正在研究我们颈部的小肌肉在不同重力阶段如何支撑我们。将在飞行前后拍摄大脑图像，观察微重力和太空任务期间大脑发生的变化。”
宇航员们将继续研究微重力如何影响一些长期驻留者的视力，显然是由于眼睛形状随时间变化。有趣的是，这些变化并不总是负面的。
梅尔说，她第一次飞行前需要戴眼镜，但在太空驻留期间，视力改善到20/15。
“对我来说很有趣，这实际上很有利，”她说，”但我们当然在非常仔细地研究这个问题，因为我们要确保宇航员的视力或眼睛本身不会受到长期损害。
“好在我们还没有发现任务后存在长期缺陷，但我们需要收集更多数据。”
机组还将测试欧洲航天局开发的新型健身器材，以帮助宇航员在未来前往月球和火星的飞行中保持健康。他们还将使用着陆模拟器软件，了解微重力如何影响宇航员在月球或火星上的着陆。
[配图：在前往国际空间站的发射前准备间隙，梅尔鼓励她三岁的女儿在卡纳维拉尔角海滩发射”跺脚火箭”。杰西卡·梅尔]
“我们甚至有一个新实验叫Relax Pro，我和索菲将参与其中，研究冥想和正念对太空任务中宇航员的益处，”梅尔说。
但并非全是工作。梅尔将随身携带一支 piccolo（ piccolo是一种小型长笛，这里指短笛），费佳耶夫计划在他的首次飞行中带上口琴。
“除了口琴，上一次任务中还有三把吉他，”费佳耶夫说，”我们经常一起唱歌，就像卡拉OK。
“我们唱不同语言的歌，或者我弹吉他，大家唱从网上查到的歌词。所以我们可能会相聚并演奏乐器，也许真的会举办一场音乐会！”
阿德纳将成为第二位进入太空的法国女性。1985年入选的七名法国宇航员之一——医生克劳迪·艾涅雷（Claudie Haigneré）在1996年曾在俄罗斯”和平号”空间站停留16天。阿德纳说，艾涅雷充当了她的导师，并计划参加机组12号的发射。
“我清楚记得克劳迪·艾涅雷的第一次发射，”阿德纳说，”当时我14岁，那一刻我突然意识到，她是第一位飞往太空的法国女宇航员，在此之前只有男性。
“你知道，当你十几岁时，你只是在寻找灵感，如果有人已经做到了，你就会想：如果一个女人能做到，为什么我不能？”
梅尔小时候也梦想过太空飞行，她说迫不及待要重返空间站。
“我上一次飞行时没有丈夫和孩子，现在都有了，”她说，”上一次7个月的飞行结束时，我真的想再待久一点，不想回家。而这一次，因为要离开三岁的孩子，感觉会有些不同。
“但我们在空间站所做的一切都非常令人兴奋，让我们保持活力，很容易不去想念家里的事情。
“我希望我们所做的工作足够令人兴奋、重要和值得关注，有一天当她长大后，会欣赏这段时间的分离。”
Replacement space station crew takes off on eight-month mission
2026-02-13T05:19:00-0500 / CBS News
With NASA’s delayed Artemis II moon mission on hold, SpaceX pressed ahead with a Friday the 13th launch of four fresh crew members to the International Space Station in a mission to replace four fliers who came home early last month because of a medical issue one was having.
Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot 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 off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:15 a.m. EST.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft on top launches from Space Launch Complex 40 for the Crew-12 mission at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 13, 2026. Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, the Falcon 9 streaked away on a northeasterly trajectory aligned with the space station’s orbit, on course for docking Saturday around 3:15 p.m. to boost the lab’s crew from three back to a full complement of seven.
Crew 12 originally expected to take off after four other astronauts ventured to the moon and back in NASA’s Artemis II mission. But the moonshot was delayed to early March because of hydrogen fuel leaks in that crew’s huge Space Launch System rocket. That, in turn, cleared the way for NASA to move up Crew 12’s launch to Feb. 11.
But high winds off shore in the Atlantic Ocean, where the Crew 12 fliers would have to splash down in an ascent emergency, then prompted NASA to stand down until Friday, when calmer seas and lower winds were predicted.
While Crew 12 made final preparations to fly, engineers ran another test at nearby pad 39B Thursday to check the effectiveness of new seals in an umbilical connecting fuel lines to the SLS moon rocket. The seals are intended to prevent the sort of hydrogen leakage seen during a “wet-dress rehearsal” countdown Feb. 2.
NASA did not publicize the test, but the agency said later it did not go as planned because of what sources described as a frozen filter in ground equipment.
The trouble will have to be addressed before engineers can attempt a re-test of the new seals, followed by another full-up dress rehearsal fueling test to clear the way for launch as early as March 3.
Replacement crew sets sights on space station, boosting staff back to seven
In the near-term, Crew 12 has its sights set on joining space station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, fellow cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who were launched to the lab last November aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry ship. They will help the new crew get up to speed on the intricacies of station operations.
Meir and Fedyaev won’t need much help because both are station veterans. Their crewmates are making their first trip to orbit, but Hathaway and Adenot bring a wide variety of operational experience to the table.
Crew 12 during training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA, rocket manufacturing facility. Left to right: Fedyaev, Hathaway, Meir and Adenot. SpaceX
Hathaway is a veteran F/A-18E fighter pilot with more than 500 aircraft carrier landings to his credit while Adenot is a French air force helicopter test pilot with more than 3,000 hours flying time under her belt. She’s also an experienced sky and SCUBA diver and a certified yoga instructor.
Meir holds a Ph.D. in marine biology and participated in three all-female spacewalks during her first station stay in 2019-20. She and Fedyaev are looking forward to helping their rookie crewmates quickly get up to speed when they get to the ISS.
“Both of us are really excited to bring our past experiences and expertise to the very first flight for (Hathaway and Adenot),” she said. “We love this kind of balance that we have, of two veterans and two rookies, to hit the ground running when we get aboard the International Space Station.”
Fedyaev, who flew to the space station aboard a Crew Dragon in 2023, was added to Crew 12 in December after veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed. reportedly for violating security restrictions during training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said only that Artemyev was reassigned to other work.
Fedyaev’s prior experience and training with SpaceX and NASA enabled him to join Crew 12 with little impact on launch preparations.
Early return of one station crew prompts accelerated launch of replacements
Crew 12 is replacing Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, co-pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Crew 11 originally was expected to return to Earth around Feb. 20, after a “handover” with their Crew 12 replacements.
But NASA ordered Cardman and company back to Earth on Jan. 15 after one of the Crew 11 fliers experienced an undisclosed medical issue. Crew 11 came down safely and all four crew members appeared healthy and in good spirits at a post-flight news conference.
But their departure left the station with a single NASA astronaut aboard — Williams — to operate systems in the U.S. segment of the complex. It also brought NASA research to a virtual standstill.
“What it means is, really, there’s just fewer hands on board to do some of the work,” said space station Program Manager Dina Contella.
“On the U.S. operating segment, if we were to have a major failure, then we would like to have a second USOS crew member to be able to go out and perform a complex spacewalk.”
At present, she said, there are no major problems aboard the space station. Even so, NASA asked SpaceX to move the Crew 12 launch up by a few days to get the station crew back to full strength as soon as possible.
Before the Artemis II launch was delayed, NASA was planning a ship-to-ship call between the moon-bound astronauts and the space station crew. That should still be possible despite the moon mission delay.
Crew members face busy schedule in orbit
Meir certainly hopes so, because her partner during those all-female spacewalks was Artemis II crew member Christina Koch. And her astronaut class included Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, and she said she’s close friends with commander Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“I would be really excited to be able to talk to Christina, and also my classmate Victor Glover and kind of my astronaut uncles, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen,” she said before the moon mission slipped to March. “We’re all very excited to be all in space at the same time.”
Meir poses in the space station’s multi-window cupola during her first stay aboard the outpost in 2019-20. NASA
But mostly, Meir is looking forward to the science her crew will conduct during a roughly eight-month stay aboard the space station.
“We will do experiments ranging from bone and muscle health, (studying) our blood flow, what’s going on in all of these systems during the changes that we experience in microgravity,” she said.
“There’s an experiment that’s looking at the small muscles in our necks and how they can support us in different gravitational phases. There will be images of our brains taken pre- and post-flight to look at any changes to the brain that happened during microgravity and space missions.”
The astronauts will continue ongoing studies of how microgravity affects the vision of some long-duration fliers, apparently by changing the shape of the eye over time. Interestingly, those changes are not always for the worst.
Meir said she needed glasses before her first flight, but her vision improved to 20-15 over the course of her stay in space.
“Pretty interesting for me, it actually turned out to be quite advantageous,” she said. “But of course, we’re studying this really thoroughly, because we want to make sure that we don’t have any long-term damage to astronauts’ vision, or to the eyes themselves.
“The good thing is, we haven’t seen any deficits long-term that exist beyond the missions, but we need to collect more data.”
The crew will also test a new exercise machine developed by the European Space Agency that’s designed to help astronauts stay fit during future flights to the moon and Mars. And they will work with landing simulator software to learn more about how microgravity might affect astronauts setting down on the moon or Mars.
Meir encourages her three-year-old daughter to launch a “stomp rocket” on the beach at Cape Canaveral during a break in pre-flight preparations for launch to the International Space Station. Jessica Meir
“We even have a new experiment called Relax Pro that Sophie and I will be participating in that’s looking at meditation and mindfulness and how that can benefit astronauts on space missions,” Meir said.
But it won’t be all work. Meir is bringing a piccolo with her and Fedyaev plans to play a harmonica he brought aboard on his first flight.
Along with the harmonica, “there were three guitars during our previous mission on board, Fedyaev said. “We used to sing together, and it was like karaoke.
“We sang different languages, or I would play the guitar, and everybody would sing the words from the song they looked up online. So we will probably meet and play our musical instruments and maybe actually give a concert!”
Adenot will be the second French woman to fly in space. Physician Claudie Haigneré, one of seven French astronauts chosen in 1985, spent 16 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1996. Adenot said Haigneré has acted as a sort of mentor for her and planned to attend the Crew 12 launch.
“I remember very well the first launch of Claudie Haigneré,” Adenot said. “I was 14 years old, and that day it kind of clicked in my mind. She was the first French woman astronaut flying to space and before, only men.
“And you know, when you’re a teenager, you’re just looking for inspiration, and if someone has done it already, then it clicks in your mind: say, if a woman has done it already, then why not me?”
Meir also dreamed of spaceflight when she was a child and said she can’t wait to get back aboard the space station.
“When I flew last time, I did not have a husband and a child, and now I have both,” she said. “At the end of my seven months, last time, I actually wanted to stay longer, I wasn’t ready to come home. And this time, perhaps will feel a little bit different since I’ll be leaving my three-year-old back here.
“But everything that we’re doing on board the space station is so exciting, it keeps us going, keeps us invigorated, and it’s easy to not miss things back at home.
“I hope that what we’re doing will be exciting enough and important enough, noteworthy enough, that one day when she’s old enough, she’ll appreciate that time away.”
