Four astronauts return from the International Space Station (ISS) more than a month ahead of schedule after one of the crew members is diagnosed with a medical problem. NASA reports this in a press statement. For privacy reasons, the American space agency does not reveal which of the four crew members is affected by the medical issue. According to NASA Director Jared Isaacman, the crew will leave the space station “within days.”
NASA does state that the person in question is in stable condition. Dr. James Polk, NASA’s top health and medical official, said at a news conference that the astronaut would not require any special treatment during the return trip. Polk adds that it is also better to examine the astronaut on Earth.
“We have a very extensive set of medical equipment on board the International Space Station,” says Polk. “But we don’t have the same amount of equipment as, say, an emergency room to do a full medical evaluation. “And in this particular case,” he adds, “we want to complete that evaluation, and the best way to do that is on Earth.”
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SpaceX Crew 11
The returning group – consisting of American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japanese Space Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov – forms NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11. The mission, which is part of the space station’s regular crew rotation, was originally not expected to be completed until next month at the earliest. Normally, NASA wouldn’t bring a team back to Earth until a new crew has arrived.
Isaacman — who himself flew into orbit twice on private SpaceX missions — said he made the decision to bring back the group of four astronauts. He said during a press conference on Thursday that his decision was partly motivated by the fact that four new crew members will leave for the space station on NASA’s Crew-12 mission in the coming weeks and that the agency is investigating how to speed up that launch. The mission was scheduled for approximately mid-February.
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Delayed spacewalk
NASA announced the astronaut’s medical problem on Wednesday, when the agency announced it was postponing a spacewalk due to unspecified “medical concerns.” “These are the situations that NASA and our partners train and prepare to safely execute,” NASA said in a statement.
When the Crew-11 astronauts return, only one NASA astronaut will remain aboard the space station: Chris Williams. He arrived at the space station in late November aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, as part of a cooperation agreement between the United States and Russia.
Officials said Thursday that Williams is well prepared to handle whatever tasks come his way and that they are confident he will soon be joined by the Crew-12 astronauts, returning staffing to normal levels.
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