NASA announces timing for astronauts’ early departure from ISS due to medical issue
NASA will attempt to repatriate four astronauts from the International Space Station on Wednesday after a crew member experienced a medical problem in orbit, the agency announced.
In a statement released Friday evening, NASA said undocking of the space station would take place no earlier than 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, provided weather conditions are clear at the designated landing site off the coast of California.
This will be the first time in the space station’s 25-year history that a mission has been aborted due to a medical incident in space.
NASA said one of its astronauts experienced a medical problem earlier this week, but did not provide additional details about the problem or the identity of the crew member due to medical privacy concerns.
Agency officials said in a news conference Thursday that the situation was stable and the early departure was a precautionary measure rather than an emergency evacuation.
“After discussions with Chief Medical Officer Dr. JD Polk and agency leadership, I have made the decision that it is in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew 11 before their scheduled departure,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during the briefing.
The crew members returning to Earth next week are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The astronauts, known as Crew-11, arrived at the International Space Station in early August and were expected to remain aboard the orbiting laboratory until the end of February.
The Crew-11 astronauts will make the return trip in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule they flew to the space station. If they leave as planned Wednesday evening, they are expected to land in the Pacific Ocean nearly 11 hours later, around 3:40 a.m. Thursday.
Additional details on the precise time and location of the landing will be provided by NASA and SpaceX as undocking approaches, the space agency said.
After the early departure of Crew 11, NASA will face several weeks with just one of its astronauts aboard the space station to oversee U.S. science experiments and operations: flight engineer Chris Williams, who blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Nov. 27. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev will stay there with him.
The next crew members are expected to launch to the ISS in mid-February, but Isaacman said NASA will evaluate whether to scale up that mission, known as Crew-12.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
