WATCH: ISS astronauts return to Earth for the first time due to crew member’s illness

NASA’s Crew-11 is returning to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) today, cutting its six-month stint in space short due to an undisclosed medical condition of an unidentified crew member.

“For NASA, this is unprecedented,” said Dr. Farhan Asrar, associate dean of the School of Medicine at Metropolitan University of Toronto.

“When we look at the 25-year history of the ISS, this is the first time that a mission has been cut short specifically for medical reasons or for medical evacuation,” he said. “However, there have been (ISS) medical issues over time, but not to the extent that it led to a medical evacuation.”

However, Asrar stated that in 1976, A Soviet mission was cut short Due to a noxious odor in the spacecraft.

During last week’s news conference announcing the crew’s expedited return, Dr. James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, stressed that this was not an “emergent” issue, but that it felt best to return the astronauts to Earth to provide the medical care they needed.

“We have a very robust suite of medical hardware on the International Space Station, but we don’t have the full amount of hardware in the emergency department, for example, to complete the workup of a patient,” Polk said.

“And the medical event that occurred in this particular incident was enough that we were concerned about the astronaut, that we would want to complete that workup. And the best way to complete that workup is on the ground where we have the full suite of medical testing hardware.”

Crew-11’s return comes after NASA canceled astronauts Jenna Cardman and Mike Finke’s scheduled spacewalk last week, which later revealed a “medical issue” with an unnamed astronaut.

Although the crew is returning a month earlier than expected, three people will remain on the ISS: Russian cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.

Crew-12 includes Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fadeyev along with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway. and astronauts of the European Space Agency Sophie Adenot is scheduled to visit the ISS on February 15.

Meanwhile, NASA is preparing for its Artemis II mission, in which Canadian space agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will fly around the moon with NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover. The launch is not scheduled before February 6.

Asrar said that while it serves as a reminder about the challenges of space, it also shows how important crew safety is to NASA.

“Agencies and decision-makers are also willing to cut back on (missions) because (they) consider astronaut health and safety paramount,” he said.