NASA Medical Evacuation: ISS Crew Returns to Earth Early
Kyiv • UNN
Four astronauts are leaving the ISS due to an unknown illness of one of the crew members, returning to Earth a month earlier than planned. This is the first medical evacuation in NASA's history.
A crew of four astronauts is scheduled to leave the International Space Station on Wednesday as part of NASA's first-ever medical evacuation after an unknown illness of one of the crew members. This was reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.
Details
The astronauts are expected to undock from the station at approximately 5:00 PM New York time in a SpaceX Dragon capsule and splash down off the coast of California around 3:40 AM on Thursday. The evacuation will shorten the crew's planned stay on the ISS by approximately one month.
During a press conference on January 8, NASA's Chief Health and Medical Officer James Polk stated that the astronaut's condition is "absolutely stable," but the agency decided to return the team to Earth earlier than planned to conduct a more thorough medical examination of this crew member.
NASA first confirmed the medical incident on January 7, postponing a spacewalk due to health concerns. The agency did not disclose the astronaut's name or the nature of the medical issue for privacy reasons.
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The four participants of the mission, called Crew-11, went to the station in August with an expectation of an approximately six-month mission — a typical duration for manned flights to the ISS.
The Crew-11 crew includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
After Crew-11 departs, two Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams will remain on board the station. The agency is currently working to accelerate the arrival of the next crew, which was scheduled to launch in February and was supposed to arrive at the station before Crew-11's departure.
Recall
NASA has been unable to re-establish contact with the MAVEN probe for almost a month, which disappeared in Mars orbit on December 6, 2025. Telemetry analysis indicates an unplanned rotation of the spacecraft, and resuscitation attempts have been suspended until January 16, 2026, due to an astronomical phenomenon.