AN entire crew will be evacuated from the International Space Station following an astronaut suffering a medical emergency.
The unprecedented action will mark the first time in history that a space crew has come back to earth before their scheduled return date.
The decision was revealed on Thursday, less than 24 hours after NASA cancelled a spacewalk due to the medical issue.
The revelation came in a press conference by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman told the media that Crew-11 would not complete its mission until its scheduled return date in February.
He said NASA was also continuing to work out the details for all crew members’ safe return over the next 48 hours.
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“I’ve come to the decision that it’s in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure,” he said.
Officials said they were “erring on the side of caution for the crew member”.
Crew-11 was initially made up of four astronauts: Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russia cosmonaut Oleg Platanov.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Chris Williams joined the crew at the space station in November last year, after arriving on a Russia Soyuz spacecraft.
Isaacman said Williams will remain at the space station with the Soyuz crew to maintain America’s presence in space.
The identity of the astronaut who suffered the medical episode has not been revealed.
Despite this, NASA’s chief medical officer Dr James Polk said they were not in any immediate danger.
Dr Polk added that the crew member was being cared for by their fellow crewmates until their return.
He said that the medical issue had nothing to do with the upcoming spacewalk, or any other operations on board the station.
“It’s mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity,” he said on Thursday.
Dr Polk did not go into specific medical details on the incident.
According to NASA, no special precautions were necessary to keep the ailing astronaut safe until their return, and that the evacuation plan was still being finalised.
The astronaut’s condition has been described as “stable”.
This is the first time in history that NASA has sent an astronaut home for medical reasons; however, an evacuation plan was built into all ISS missions.
Crew return vehicles are always kept on standby in case of emergency.
“I´m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” Dr Polk said.
Isaacman noted that the agency did consider this a “serious medical condition”, causing officials to sanction the first-ever evacuation.
Dr Polk reiterated the astronaut was not in imminent danger, in which case NASA would consider rushing the evacuation process in an unsafe flight window.
“The crew member is absolutely stable, so I don’t foresee massive changes to the timeline or their activities,” he said.
Crew-11 arrived at the space station on August 1 in 2025 with a return date originally booked in for late February.
The four astronauts were meant to depart after Crew-12 arrived on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The new crew were to arrive no later than February 15.
According to Isaacman, any decision to move up the launch of Crew-12 would not impact on the impending Artemis II mission planned for February 2026.
He referred to the two launches as “totally separate campaigns”, saying there would be no issue in launching the Artemis mission as scheduled.
Artemis II is slated to be the first manned spaceflight to orbit the moon since 1972.
The ISS is mandated to have astronauts on board at all times, as they are crucial to carrying out maintenance, repairs, to operate complex experiments, manage life support and spacewalks, tasks that automation cannot fully handle, ensuring constant human oversight for safety and scientific output.
Historically, a crew has never been evacuated ahead of their scheduled departure time from the ISS, however, two spacewalks were recently cancelled, due to various health conditions of astronauts.
A mission in 2021 was cancelled when Mark Vande Hei suffered a pinched nerve and was unable to travel outside the ISS.
A second mission in 2024 was cancelled at the last minute because an astronaut experienced “spacesuit discomfort”.
