NASA sends 4 astronauts back to Earth in first medical evacuation

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — An astronaut in need of medical treatment left the International Space Station with three crewmates Wednesday in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

The four returning astronauts – from the United States, Russia and Japan – are aiming for a splashdown early Thursday morning in the Pacific near San Diego with SpaceX. The decision shortens their mission by more than a month.

“The timing of this departure is unexpected,” NASA astronaut Zena Cardman said before the return trip, “but what didn’t surprise me was how much this crew came together as a family to help each other and just take care of each other.”

Authorities declined to identify the astronaut who needed treatment last week and did not disclose his health problems.

The ailing astronaut is “stable, safe and well cared for,” outgoing space station commander Mike Fincke said earlier this week via social media. “This is a deliberate decision to allow appropriate medical assessments to take place in the field, where the full range of diagnostic capabilities exists.”

Launched in August, Cardman, Fincke, the Japanese Kimiya Yui and the Russian Oleg Platonov should have remained on the space station until the end of February. But on January 7, NASA abruptly canceled Cardman and Fincke’s next day’s spacewalk and later announced the crew’s early return. Officials said the health problem was not related to spacewalk preparations or other station operations, but provided no further details, citing medical confidentiality. They stressed that this was not an emergency situation.

NASA said it would stick to the same entry and water landing procedures at the end of the flight, with the usual assortment of medical experts aboard the recovery ship in the Pacific. It was another dead-of-night crew return for SpaceX, less than 11 hours after undocking from the space station. NASA said it did not yet know how quickly the four would be transported from California to Houston, home to the Johnson Space Center and the astronaut base.

One American astronaut and two Russian astronauts remain aboard the orbiting laboratory, just a month and a half into an eight-month mission that began with the liftoff of a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan. NASA and SpaceX are working to expedite the launch of a new four-person crew from Florida, currently scheduled for mid-February.

Computer modeling predicted a medical evacuation from the space station every three years, but NASA hasn’t had one in its 65 years of human spaceflight. The Russians were not so lucky. In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin contracted a serious infection or related illness aboard his country’s Salyut 7 space station, prompting him to quickly return. A few other Soviet cosmonauts experienced less serious health problems that shortened their flights.

It was the first spaceflight for Cardman, 38, a biologist and polar explorer who was unable to go into space, as well as Platonov, 39, a former Russian Air Force fighter pilot who had to wait a few more years to go to space due to an undisclosed health problem. Cardman was supposed to launch last year, but was pushed back to make room for NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were stuck at the space station for nearly a year due to Boeing capsule problems.

Fincke, 58, a retired Air Force colonel, and Yui, 55, a retired Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter pilot, were regular space pilots. Finke spent a year and a half in orbit on four missions and completed nine spacewalks on previous flights, making him one of NASA’s most successful spacewalkers. Last week, Yui celebrated her 300th day in space during two station stays, sharing stunning views of Earth, including Japan’s Mount Fuji and breathtaking auroras.

“I want to engrave it firmly in my eyes, and even more, in my heart,” Yui said on social platform X. “Soon, I too will become one of those little lights on the ground.”

NASA officials said it was riskier to leave the astronaut in space without proper medical care for another month than to temporarily reduce the size of the space station crew by more than half. Until SpaceX provides another crew, NASA said it will have to withdraw from any routine or even emergency spacewalks, a two-person job requiring crew assistance inside the orbiting complex.

The medevac was the first major decision made by new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. The billionaire founder of a payment processing company and double space pilot took charge of the agency in December.

“The health and well-being of our astronauts always is and will be our highest priority,” Isaacman said in announcing the decision last week.

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