NASA says it's considering bringing a crew of four home from the International Space Station early due to what the agency describes as a “medical concern” with one of the crew members.
The agency did not describe the medical issue or which crew member it affected, but NASA said the person is stable.
The medical concern cancelled a planned spacewalk Thursday and NASA is now considering what’s next.
“Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority,” said a NASA spokesperson. “We are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission. These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely.”
Crew-11 launched to the space station from Kennedy Space Center August 1, 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Typically, station crews spend about six to eight months living and working on the station.
The team is made up of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese Space Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
Cardman and Fincke were scheduled to perform the now-cancelled spacewalk Thursday. They were tasked with updating the station’s power system and preparing it for the installation of new roll-out solar panels. The additional power from those panels would help safely deorbit the station upon its retirement in 2030.
Medical conditions of astronauts are rarely made public. The International Space Station is equipped with medical equipment and a pharmacy, and crews undergo medical training and are in contact with doctors back on Earth if needed. If there’s a medical emergency, the crew will return in the same spacecraft that brought them to the station.
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