NASA considering bringing crew home early due to medical issue with astronaut

NASA is considering a rare early return of its crew from the International Space Station after canceling a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday over an unspecified medical issue involving an astronaut, the agency said.

A NASA spokesperson said the astronauts, who they did not identify, were in stable condition at the orbiting laboratory with medical issues.

“Conducting our mission safely is our top priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of terminating Crew-11’s mission early,” the spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday night.

NASA had earlier said in a statement that it was “monitoring a medical concern that arose Wednesday afternoon with a crew member.”

Astronauts typically live on the ISS in six- to eight-month rotations with access to basic medical equipment and medications for certain types of emergencies.

The four-member Crew-11 crew includes American astronauts Jenna Cardman and Mike Finke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They have been at the space station since launching from Florida in August and were scheduled to return around May this year.

Fincke, the station’s designated commander, and Cardman, assigned as flight engineer, were scheduled to conduct a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Thursday to install hardware outside the station.

NASA’s astronaut crew treats medical conditions on the ISS as a closely guarded secret, and astronauts rarely publicly acknowledge or describe their medical conditions.

Spacewalks are difficult and risky missions that require months of training, including heavy spacesuits and carefully coordinated instructions while tethered to the ISS.

In 2024, NASA canceled a planned spacewalk at the last minute because an astronaut experienced “discomfort in the spacesuit”. American astronaut Mark Vande Hei canceled his spacewalk in 2021 due to a pinched nerve.