Washington (United States) (AFP) – NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, marking the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab’s history. Officials did not provide details about the medical event but confirmed that the unidentified crewmember is stable. They also stated that the situation did not result from any kind of injury onboard or from ISS operations.
NASA chief medical officer James Polk explained that “lingering risk” and a “lingering question as to what that diagnosis is” led to the decision to return the crew early. Officials insisted that it was not an emergency evacuation. The four astronauts on NASA-SpaceX Crew 11 — US members Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, along with Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov — are expected to return within the coming days to one of the routine splashdown sites.
Amit Kshatriya, a NASA associate administrator, noted that this was the “first time we’ve done a controlled medical evacuation from the vehicle,” calling the situation unusual. He highlighted that the crew utilized their “onboarding training” to “manage unexpected medical situations.” Kshatriya stated, “Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, careful deliberations led us to the decision to return Crew 11…while ensuring minimal operational impact to ongoing work aboard.”
The four astronauts set to return have been on their mission since August 1. Such journeys generally last approximately six months, and this crew was already due to return in the coming weeks. Officials indicated that it was possible the next US mission could depart to the ISS earlier than scheduled, but did not provide specifics. Chris Williams, who launched on a Russian mission to the station, will stay onboard to maintain US presence, alongside Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
NASA had previously announced the postponement of a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue. Astronauts Fincke and Cardman were scheduled to carry out the approximately 6.5-hour spacewalk to perform power upgrade work.
Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration — including eventual missions to Mars. The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
© 2024 AFP
