Who’s the sick astronaut on the ISS? What we all know.

NASA will carry 4 astronauts house from the Worldwide Area Station days sooner than deliberate after one crew member skilled a medical challenge that requires additional testing. 

In a information convention Thursday night, company leaders mentioned the astronaut is “completely secure” however wants a full diagnostic workup that may’t be completed within the lab orbiting 250 miles above the planet. The return from house marks the primary managed medical evacuation from the station in its 25 years of steady operations, highlighting the rarity of the state of affairs and the bounds of treating complicated well being issues away from Earth.

New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman mentioned ending the mission somewhat early is in one of the best curiosity of Crew-11. The astronauts — Commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimya Yui, and Russia’s Oleg Platonov — will experience SpaceX‘s Dragon Endeavour capsule again to Earth inside days. 

As soon as Dragon departs, American astronaut Chris Williams, who arrived on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November, would be the solely U.S. crew member left. Russian colleagues will assist Williams handle methods and experiments till Crew‑12‘s flight launches, probably as quickly as mid‑February. 

Here is what we all know in regards to the unprecedented medical evacuation:

Who’s the sick astronaut on the ISS?

NASA is intentionally attempting to maintain the title of the affected astronaut confidential, citing medical privateness practices. Throughout the Jan. 8 briefing, officers did not disclose figuring out info — not even slipping up with any gendered pronouns of their feedback. 

What we do know is that simply previous to the announcement of the medical evacuation, NASA had canceled a scheduled spacewalk — a enterprise exterior the house station — particularly due to the medical concern that arose Wednesday afternoon. NASA astronauts Fincke and Cardman have been anticipated to carry out that operation, associated to an set up of photo voltaic panels.

JAXA, NASA’s Japanese house counterpart, launched a press release that clarified Yui isn’t the crew member coping with the well being challenge, in response to Japanese information studies. 

What’s the medical situation on the ISS?

Although NASA’s chief well being and medical officer J.D. Polk mentioned he would not speak specifics a couple of prognosis, he and different officers repeatedly referred to the circumstance as “critical.” 

NASA has solely confirmed that the astronaut is now “secure,” however officers have not mentioned if there was ever a time when the astronaut was not secure. They declined to offer sufficient particulars to deduce that. 

When requested whether or not bodily preparations for the spacewalk have been concerned in the issue, Dr. Polk clarified that it was unrelated to pre-breathing procedures. Earlier than a spacewalk, astronauts breathe pure oxygen for a set interval to flush nitrogen out of their bloodstream. 

Contained in the house station, air is like Earth’s, with a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. Within the spacesuit, the strain is way decrease and principally oxygen. A sudden swap from one to the opposite might trigger the dissolved nitrogen in an individual’s physique to type bubbles and trigger the bends, like in scuba diving. Pre-breathing is meant to cut back the danger of decompression illness. 

“This really had nothing to do with the operational surroundings in getting ready for a spacewalk in any respect,” Dr. Polk mentioned. “This was completely unrelated to any operations on board.”

Dr. Polk additionally emphasised that the medical challenge wasn’t an harm in the midst of work, although he stopped in need of saying whether or not it was another type of harm. 

“It is principally having a medical challenge within the tough areas of microgravity,” he mentioned. 

What medical emergencies have occurred earlier than? 

Astronauts have dealt with many medical points over a quarter-century on the house station, however most fall within the class of urgent-care issues, like toothaches and ear ache. 

Public studies additionally describe astronauts managing minor accidents and infections, again ache, movement illness, complications, and imaginative and prescient adjustments with telemedicine and the onboard medical package. They’ve even handled a blood clot within the neck, treating it with injections of a blood-thinning drug and later oral medicine, as soon as it arrived on a cargo resupply ship.

“We have had many fashions … which have mentioned we should always have had a medical evacuation roughly each three years in that 25-year historical past,” Dr. Polk mentioned. 

Is the astronaut evacuation an emergency?

Technically talking, no. NASA describes it as a “managed expedited return,” not an emergency deorbit for the crew. That may seem to be semantics, however the distinction signifies the state of affairs’s perceived degree of severity.

An emergency deorbit would imply departing the station as quickly as potential, whatever the touchdown timing, sea circumstances, climate, and different dangers, which NASA is able to doing, Isaacman mentioned. An expedited return, then again, sticks to accredited touchdown zones and mission guidelines. The latter sort of departure signifies the astronaut’s life is not thought of in rapid hazard.

Regardless of the crew member remaining secure, NASA desires to carry the individual house as a result of the station lacks the total diagnostic {hardware} usually present in a hospital, officers mentioned.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts take part in a water survival demonstration on the Impartial Buoyancy Lab in April 2025.
Credit score: NASA / James Blair

When will the SpaceX Dragon return to Earth?

NASA hasn’t introduced a precise touchdown date but, however the ship will undock within the “coming days.” Officers mentioned they would offer one other replace by Saturday night on the departure timeline. NASA will select the date after groups match the spacecraft’s readiness with climate and restoration circumstances.

The splashdown itself ought to look fairly commonplace, in response to the company. NASA intends to make use of the conventional restoration convoy to select up the crew. Each Dragon ship is outfitted with emergency gear, and flight surgeons are all the time on the restoration ship for each touchdown, with contingency hospitals ready on standby when astronauts return. 

“That is no totally different in that respect,” Dr. Polk mentioned.