NASA Crew to Make Early Return From Space Station After Health Issue in Orbit

Four astronauts at the International Space Station will return to Earth more than a month earlier than scheduled, after a crew member had a health scare in space.

NASA did not disclose the condition, offering respect to astronaut privacy. The crew member is in stable condition and does not require any special care during the trip home, the agency said. Officials say doctors want to carry out thorough medical checks on Earth, with full equipment available there.

The space station has good medical tools, but now it can’t handle what doctors call “tertiary” care — more advanced procedures that the patient could die without, noted NASA’s chief health and medical officer, Dr. James Polk. For this case, a complete review is most effectively made on the ground.

The crew consists of the NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They are the SpaceX Crew-11, on a mission that was anticipated to continue until at least next month. Typically, NASA does not return astronauts to Earth until a replacement crew is on hand.

Jared Isaacman, the administrator of NASA, agreed to the early return. He added that another crew, Crew-12, was set for launch before too long and expedited efforts were being made to fly this mission. The members of Crew-11 are scheduled to depart the station in a matter of days.

The issue first cropped up Wednesday, when NASA announced that a scheduled spacewalk was being put off for the time being. The agency said such incidents are a normal part of training and safety planning.

After Crew-11 departs, there will be just one NASA astronaut on station: Chris Williams. He had arrived in November on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft as part of a joint flight between the United States and Russia. He is fully trained to operate the station until a new crew can be launched, NASA officials said.

Health problems in space are difficult to treat, experts say. Doctors are forced to work with tools so limited that astronauts live more than 200 miles above the nearest human. Simple issues like earaches can also be more difficult to diagnose in orbit. Prolonged periods in space can also wear on the heart, bones, eyes and mental health.

NASA has a history of keeping astronaut medical information secret. Historically, health problems in flight have only been reported years afterward through research studies — typically without naming the astronauts. The agency says this approach keeps crew members safe aboard the spacecraft while simultaneously enabling scientists to keep studying how space influences the human body.

During more than two decades of space station missions, NASA has dealt with a number of medical situations in orbit. Agency officials say the agency has found ways to safely deal with most cases, in either space or by sending astronauts back down to Earth as necessary.