NASA will bring the Crew-11 astronauts who were on a mission to the ISS back to Earth ahead of schedule due to a medical incident involving one of the crew members, as announced this Thursday by the new administrator of the US space agency, millionaire Jared Isaacman. He is a technology magnate, aerobatic pilot and commercial astronaut, since the President of the United States, Donald Trump, restored him to office.
“Yesterday, January 7, a crew member aboard the station suffered a medical condition and is stable,” . “After conversations with the director of health and medical, Dr. JD Poke, and with agency leaders, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our astronauts for Crew 11 to return before their scheduled departure,” he announced. In the coming days, the Dragon Endeavor spacecraft will depart the ISS to bring astronauts back to Earth. The return of the Crew-11 astronauts was scheduled for March 2026.
Before Isaacman confirmed the early return of the Crew-11 crew, NASA had previously announced through a press conference that it was postponing a spacewalk outside the ISS due to a medical incident, which emerged this Wednesday.
The agency has avoided releasing the name of the sick crew member for confidentiality reasons. Dr. Paul has reiterated that he is in a stable condition.
ISS commander Michael Fincke and flight director Zena Cardman were scheduled to leave the space station for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, which would focus on power upgrade work, the agency said.
On August 1, the Crew-11 crew took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and a Falcon 9 rocket and was scheduled to stay for six months, which would end in the first week of February.
“Our crews are extensively trained to manage unexpected medical situations and other unusual events, including onboard training, which we conduct regularly for these situations. Yesterday was a classic example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, after careful deliberations, we made the decision to return crew 11, while ensuring minimal operational impact on the ongoing work aboard the ISS,” said Amit Kshatriya, associate administrator of NASA.
For his part, Dr. James Polk, NASA’s medical and health director, explained: “We have a very complete medical team on board the International Space Station, but we do not have the full amount of equipment that we would have in the emergency room, for example, to evaluate a patient. In this particular incident, the medical equipment was enough for us to be concerned about the astronaut and want to perform the evaluation. And the best way to do it is on the ground, where we have all the medical testing equipment. Given that the astronaut is completely stable, this is not an emergency evacuation. We do not disembark or take the astronaut down immediately, but there remains that lingering risk and the lingering question of what that diagnosis is.”
