NASA has come to a decision. It will end a mission on the International Space Station early due to a medical issue for one of the astronauts on board.
Initially, the agency had to cancel the first spacewalk of 2026 because of health concerns, but now, it has decided to take it a step further and cancel the remaining part of the six-month stay.
It is the first medical evacuation in the history of the ISS, Space.com said.
NASA has not said which of the four astronauts on the ISS is sick or what the health issues were, citing privacy.
We do know that the person is stable, but that it was not an emergency. NASA is ‘erring on the side of caution for the crew member," Dr. James Polk, NASA chief health and medical officer, said.
Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov arrived on the ISS in August for an at least six-month mission that was supposed to end in February.
“It is not an emergency de-orbit, even though we always retain that capability, and NASA and our partners train for that routinely,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said.
“The capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station,” he added.
The exact timeline for the crew’s return was not announced as of Friday morning.
Crew 12, which was supposed to replace the crew that is being evacuated, was scheduled to go up to the ISS next month, but will probably not be ready in time for 11’s return, Space.com said.
Three people will remain on the space station — NASA’s Christopher Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev — who arrived in November.
© 2025 Cox Media Group
