NASA Will Bring Crew-11 Home Early From the Space Station for Medical Care

NASA said Thursday it will bring the four astronauts of its Crew-11 mission home from the International Space Station weeks ahead of schedule because one crew member has a serious medical concern. The agency did not identify the astronaut or the condition, citing medical privacy.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he made the decision after consulting NASA’s chief health and medical officer, Dr. J.D. Polk, and agency leadership, and that returning the crew early is “in the best interest of our astronauts,” according to United Press International. Spaceflight Now reported that Isaacman described a “serious medical concern” and that NASA characterized the plan as a “medical evacuation” rather than an “emergency return.”

Polk described the astronaut as “absolutely stable,” UPI reported, but said the incident was serious enough to warrant a full evaluation on Earth. He said the case was not an emergent evacuation, while acknowledging a “lingering question” about the diagnosis. UPI also reported that NASA postponed a spacewalk planned for Thursday because of a medical issue involving one crew member, and that the early return would be the first medical early return of an astronaut in the station’s 25-year history.

Crew-11 consists of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, the commander, and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Because they travel in a single SpaceX Dragon capsule, all four must come home together. They had been scheduled to stay until late February, when the next crew, Crew-12, was due to take over.

Isaacman said NASA is looking at earlier launch opportunities for Crew-12, according to UPI. The station will not be empty in the meantime. NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, who arrived in late November, remains aboard with cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, keeping a U.S. presence on the orbiting laboratory.

A timeline for undocking and reentry had not been set in detail when the announcement was made. Spaceflight Now later reported that Dragon Endeavour undocked from the station on Jan. 14 and was due to splash down off the California coast in the predawn hours of Jan. 15, after a trip of roughly 10.5 hours. That account is dated after Thursday’s announcement and is cited here only for the capsule’s eventual schedule.

The decision means a mission scheduled to run into late February will end weeks early, and it leaves the station with a smaller crew until Crew-12 can arrive.

NASA has declined to name the astronaut or describe the condition, citing medical privacy, so the nature of the concern remains unknown. Polk’s description of a stable patient with an undiagnosed condition is the basis for the agency’s choice of a planned early return over an emergency one.