NASA cuts space station mission short in first-ever medical evacuation

NASA announced Thursday it is cutting a mission aboard the International Space Station short after one of its four crew members experienced a medical issue — a situation the agency’s top medical officer described as the first medical evacuation in the space station’s history.

The affected astronaut is stable, and the early return does not reflect an onboard emergency, Dr. James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, said. Still, the four-person crew will return to Earth in the coming days, ahead of their originally planned schedule.

“We are erring on the side of caution for the crew member,” Polk said.

NASA did not identify the affected crew member or describe the medical issue, citing patient privacy.

The early return is a rare disruption to the space station’s long-duration mission cadence and the first time NASA has evacuated a crew member for medical reasons in the station’s more than 25 years of continuous crewed operation. Polk noted that astronauts have been treated aboard for minor ailments such as toothaches and ear pain, but this marks a more significant medical response.

“I’m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said.

Crew and mission

The four-person crew — NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russia’s Oleg Platonov — arrived at the orbiting laboratory via SpaceX in August for a planned stay of at least six months.

The medical issue also forced NASA to cancel the year’s first planned spacewalk. Fincke and Cardman had been scheduled to conduct the extravehicular activity to prepare for a future rollout of solar panels intended to provide additional power to the station.

The mission marked Fincke’s fourth visit to the space station and Yui’s second. It was the first spaceflight for both Cardman and Platonov.

Others remain aboard

Three other astronauts are unaffected and will continue operating the station: NASA’s Chris Williams and Russia’s Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. That crew launched in November via a Soyuz rocket for an eight-month stay and is due to return home in the summer.

Station’s future

Separately, NASA has contracted with SpaceX to eventually bring the space station out of orbit. Plans call for a controlled, safe reentry over the ocean by late 2030 or early 2031.