Shocking ISS Evac: NASA Crew’s Rare Medical Return Underway
The crew, known as Crew 11, undocked late on Wednesday and are due to splash down off the coast of California in the early hours of Thursday local time aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Their mission has been cut short by around a month after a medical issue affected one member of the team, according to NASA.
Four astronauts have begun an early return to Earth from the International Space Station, marking the first medical evacuation from the orbiting laboratory since it was launched in 1998.
NASA Crew
The space agency has not identified the crew member involved or disclosed details of the condition, but officials stressed that the situation is not an emergency. The affected astronaut was described as being in stable condition, with the decision to return taken to allow more comprehensive medical evaluation on the ground.
Control of the space station has now been formally handed over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, alongside two other crew members who will remain on board.
Crew 11 consists of American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They arrived at the station on 1 August and were originally scheduled to stay for about six and a half months, returning in mid February.
Signs that something was amiss emerged last week when a planned spacewalk by Fincke and Cardman was cancelled at short notice. Hours later, Nasa confirmed that a crew member had fallen ill.
“It’s bittersweet,” Fincke said as he took part in the handover ceremony on Monday. In a message shared on social media, he added that everyone on board was safe, stable and well cared for, describing the early return as the right decision even if it was unexpected.
The International Space Station orbits Earth at an altitude of roughly 250 miles, completing 16 circuits of the planet each day at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Operated jointly by five space agencies, it supports a wide range of experiments examining life and work in microgravity. While astronauts receive medical training and the station carries limited medical equipment, there is no doctor permanently on board.
With Crew 11 gone, the ISS is temporarily staffed by just three people, Nasa astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. Until another crew arrives in February, Nasa has said it will pause routine and emergency spacewalks, which normally require more personnel.
“This departure was not what we planned, but we will continue our work and fulfil all scientific and maintenance tasks,” Kud Sverchkov said, before issuing his first command as station commander, a group hug.
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The event is unprecedented in the ISS’s 26 years of continuous occupation. In the broader history of human spaceflight, missions have only ended early for medical reasons on a handful of occasions. In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin returned early from the Salyut 7 station due to serious illness. Two years later, a heart rhythm problem forced Aleksandr Laveykin to leave the Mir space station ahead of schedule.
Nasa officials noted that computer models had long predicted the likelihood of a medical evacuation roughly every three years, yet none had occurred in the agency’s 65 years of human spaceflight. As missions extend further and last longer, including future plans for the Moon and Mars, experts say the need for more advanced medical capability in space, potentially including doctors on missions, will only grow.
James Polk, Nasa’s chief health and medical officer, said lingering uncertainty about the diagnosis made the early return the safest option. Senior officials also praised the crew for how they handled the situation, highlighting the professionalism and teamwork shown during an unexpected and testing moment in orbit.
