NASA crew returns to Earth early after an astronaut develops a serious medical condition

Yahoo
Yahoo
2h ago
An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three crewmates more than a month early, marking NASA’s first medical evacuation from the International Space Station.
NASA crew returns to Earth early after an astronaut develops a serious medical condition
A What happened
SpaceX guided the Crew-11 capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego less than 11 hours after the crew exited the International Space Station. The crew’s first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay, and the astronaut with the medical issue was reported to be in good spirits while undergoing medical checks. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four, with liftoff currently targeted for mid-February. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the next crew arrives.
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Key insights

  • 1

    NASA cited medical privacy for withholding details: Officials refused to identify the astronaut who developed the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.

  • 2

    NASA said it was too early to draw conclusions about the cause: Jared Isaacman said spacewalk preparations did not lead to the medical situation and said it would be premature to draw conclusions.

  • 3

    NASA said station operations would be constrained until the next crew arrives: NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew.

Takeaways

NASA returned the Crew-11 astronauts to Earth early for in-depth medical evaluation of an unidentified crewmember while working to accelerate the next crew launch and maintain space station operations with a reduced crew.

Topics

Science & Research Space

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