In Unprecedented Move, NASA to Rush Astronauts Home after Medical Incident on ISS

In unprecedented move, NASA to rush astronauts home after medical incident on ISS

By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron

NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is unexpectedly coming to an end. The four astronauts who make up the mission’s crew will be returned to Earth “in the coming days” after the agency decided to end their stay prematurely due to an undisclosed medical issue.

“It is in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 before their scheduled departure,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a press briefing Thursday. Agency officials also stressed that this was not an emergency deorbit. A further update is expected in the next 48 hours as to when the crew will leave the station for Earth.

The decision marks the first time NASA has chosen to end a mission early due to an astronaut’s health condition – and the first time such an incident has affected the ISS, which has been continuously occupied since November 2000.

On supporting science journalism

If you enjoy this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscription. By purchasing a subscription, you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

“It’s almost astonishing that we have maintained the ISS for [almost] 26 years of constant crewing without something like this happening before,” says Jordan Bimm, a space historian at the University of Chicago.

The only other time a space agency ended a mission prematurely due to health concerns was in 1985. At that time, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues returned four months ahead of schedule from a mission to the Salyut 7 space station so that he could be hospitalized due to a urological problem.

Crew 11 consists of NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. NASA’s astronaut privacy policy makes it unclear which astronaut is affected. Their condition was repeatedly described as stable, but Isaacman called the situation a “serious medical issue.”

NASA Health and Medical Officer James Polk said this was not an emergency situation and was not related to the affected astronaut’s work on the station. But the astronaut’s problem could not be fully diagnosed and resolved with the limited medical equipment on the ISS, hence his early return.

Whatever the problem, it seems to arise quickly. On January 7, NASA officials announced that the ISS crew had completed preparations for a spacewalk that Fincke and Cardman were scheduled to perform the next day. Just four hours later, the agency delayed the spacewalk, citing a medical situation aboard the space station while noting that the astronaut’s condition was stable.

As a matter of routine, astronauts are trained to deal with medical problems that arise aboard the ISS, said Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator. “Yesterday was a classic example of this training in action,” he said. The agency’s response would have been no different if one of the astronauts currently in orbit had been a doctor, Isaacman said.

The four Crew-11 astronauts arrived at the ISS on August 1, 2025, after a launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. The crew’s stay in space was scheduled to continue until mid-February 2026, a standard duration of six and a half months on the ISS for a SpaceX crew.

In order for the affected astronauts to receive medical care on the ground, NASA must bring the entire crew and their vehicles home because there are no ready spare crew capsules stationed at the ISS and NASA prefers to avoid having astronauts in orbit without returning home.

Also currently aboard the orbiting laboratory are NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. The trio arrived in November 2025 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and will remain aboard the ISS.

NASA is still finalizing Crew-11’s return to Earth, taking into account standard factors such as weather conditions around where the capsule is expected to crash into the ocean. The agency is also determining whether to advance the launch of the next mission, Crew-12. This is another mission operated by SpaceX and is currently scheduled to arrive in mid-February. Crew 12 consists of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

While the incident is a shocking first for NASA and the ISS, perhaps it shouldn’t be, given the degree to which humans have already made progress in space exploration. And it will only become more common in the future.

“It seems abnormal now, but it’s a glimpse of what the new normal will be like if humans went to space in greater numbers,” says Bimm. “People will get sick and sometimes emergency measures will have to be taken. »

Editor’s note (8/01/26): This article was updated after publication to include additional information.

It’s time to defend science

If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. Scientific American has been defending science and industry for 180 years, and we are currently experiencing perhaps the most critical moment in these two centuries of history.

I was a Scientific American subscriber since the age of 12, and it helped shape the way I see the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of respect for our vast and magnificent universe. I hope this is the case for you too.

If you subscribe to Scientific Americanyou help ensure our coverage centers on meaningful research and discoveries; that we have the resources to account for decisions that threaten laboratories across the United States; and that we support budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In exchange, you receive essential information, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, newsletters not to be missed, unmissable videos, stimulating games and the best writings and reports from the scientific world. You can even offer a subscription to someone.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you will support us in this mission.