NASA First Medical Evacuation From ISS Mission Ends Early

Crew-11 crew members Oleg Platonov (back left), Mike Finke (back left), Kimiya Yui (back right) and Jenna Cardman (back right) before leaving the ISS.

For the first time, NASA has prematurely returned four astronauts to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) due to medical issues. One of these astronauts needed medical care.

On Wednesday, all four astronauts left the ISS in a SpaceX capsule. These include astronauts from America, Russia and Japan. On Thursday, they will land in the Pacific Ocean near California.

The mission included NASA’s Jenna Cardman, Mike Finke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. All of them were sent to ISS in August 2025 and were to return by the end of February.

On January 7, NASA suddenly canceled the spacewalk of Cardman and Fincke. Later announced the early return of the crew.

Officials said the medical issue was unrelated to the spacewalk. Citing privacy, he did not give any further information.

Space station commander Mike Finke said that the condition of the ill astronaut is stable. However, he refused to reveal the identity of the astronaut.

The capsule is expected to land off the coast of California at around 3.41 am on January 15.

2 pictures of capsule separation from ISS…

Knowledge facts about NASA and ISS

• NASA was established by America for space research after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957.
• After this, on 20 November 1998, Russia’s first module Zarya was launched into space. This is considered the birthday of ISS.
• On November 2, 2000, astronauts arrived on the ISS for the first time for a long period of time. Since then there has been a continuous human presence on the ISS.

Second crew will be sent in February

NASA said the possibility of medical evacuation from the space station had previously been suggested in computer models, but this was the first time in the 65-year history of US human space missions. Currently there are one American and two Russian astronauts on the ISS. NASA and SpaceX are preparing to send a new crew by February.

NASA officials had said that leaving astronauts in space for another month without proper medical care was a greater risk than halving the space station’s crew size.

NASA will have to step back from any routine or even emergency space walks until SpaceX sends a second crew. This is a two-person job that requires backup help from the crew inside the orbiting complex.

Medical evacuation was the first major decision of NASA’s new Administrator Jared Isaacman. Jared, who has traveled into space twice, took over the top post of the agency in December. He had said- The health and well-being of our astronauts is and will always be our biggest priority.

Astronauts fell ill three times before

NASA has faced health problems involving astronauts during ISS missions before, but these did not impact the entire mission.

• In 2018, a crew member suffered a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot), but the mission continued.
• In 2020, the spacewalk of Mark Van de Heij and his partner was canceled due to medical reasons.
• In 2008, an ESA member’s spacewalk was changed due to health concerns.