NASA says it will bring 4 astronauts home earlier than planned. For the first time in history, astronauts will leave the International Space Station early due to medical issues. This is reported by UNN with reference to space.com and the ISS press service.
Details
The International Space Station announced that it would return the Crew-11 SpaceX mission to Earth earlier than scheduled due to a crew member's medical issues while considering options to accelerate the Crew-12 launch.
This is not an emergency return, although we always maintain that capability, and NASA and our partners regularly train for it.
At the same time, according to space.com, after Crew-11 departs, only three people are likely to work on the ISS for some time - Christopher Williams of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev. This trio arrived at the orbital laboratory on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft on November 27.
Recall
NASA has been unable to re-establish contact with the MAVEN probe, which disappeared in Mars orbit on December 6, 2025, for almost a month. Telemetry analysis indicates an unplanned rotation of the spacecraft, and resuscitation attempts have been suspended until January 16, 2026, due to an astronomical phenomenon.