A medical situation made four crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) schedule an early return to Earth, while the affected astronaut has reportedly remained in a stable condition and, as one of the crew suggested, the decision was not treated as an emergency but as a precaution driven by medical prudence.
The quartet — American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui — undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 2220 GMT on Wednesday, and as their SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled away from the ISS after five months in space, NASA confirmed that the mission, known as Crew-11, had been cut short by nearly a month.
Cardman, speaking before departure, said the timing was unexpected, yet the crew had come together “as a family”, while she underlined that the decision was guided by concern rather than alarm.
Although the US space agency declined to disclose which astronaut was affected or the nature of the illness, it insisted that the return was not an emergency, and Nasa spokesperson Rob Navias said the crew member “was and continues to be in stable condition”.
Fincke, the mission’s pilot, echoed that assessment in a social media post, saying everyone on board was safe and well cared for, while adding that the early return would allow doctors on the ground to conduct a fuller range of diagnostic tests.
The capsule was scheduled to splash down off the California coast at around 0840 GMT on Thursday, and NASA said the landing would proceed as a routine recovery even though the circumstances were unusual.
Computer modelling has long suggested that a medical evacuation might occur every three years on average, yet NASA has never carried one out in 65 years of human spaceflight, although the Soviet programme had earlier cut short missions for medical reasons.
The Crew-11 astronauts had arrived in early August and were meant to stay until mid-February, but Nasa’s chief health officer James Polk said lingering uncertainty over the diagnosis made an earlier return the safer option.
Meanwhile, three other astronauts, including American Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts, remain aboard the ISS, although some activities such as spacewalks will be limited until a replacement crew arrives, underscoring how a single medical issue can ripple across a complex multinational mission.