In unprecedented move, NASA to send astronauts home immediately after medical incident on ISS
NASA announced Thursday that it will take the extraordinary step of returning four crew members from the space station to Earth before their official mission ends.
NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is coming to an unexpected end. The four astronauts on the mission will return to Earth “within the coming days” after the agency decided to end their stay early due to an undisclosed medical issue.
“Returning Crew-11 before their scheduled departure is in the best interest of our astronauts,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a Thursday press conference. Agency officials also stressed that the situation is not an emergency. Another update is expected within the next 48 hours as to when the crew will depart the station for Earth.
The decision marks the first time NASA has opted to end a mission early due to an astronaut’s health – and the first time such an event has affected the ISS, which has been permanently occupied since November 2000.
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“It’s almost amazing that we’ve maintained the ISS with a continuous crew for (almost) 26 years, that’s never happened before,” says Jordan Beam, a space historian at the University of Chicago.
The only other time on record that a space agency ended a mission early due to health concerns was in 1985. At that time, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues had returned from a mission to the Salyut 7 space station four months ahead of schedule, only to be hospitalized due to a urinary problem.
Crew-11 includes NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Jenna Cardman, Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. NASA’s policy regarding astronaut privacy does not specify which astronauts are affected. His condition was repeatedly reported as stable, but Isaacman called the situation “a serious medical condition.”
NASA’s chief health and medical officer, James Polk, said the situation was not an emergency and was not related to the affected astronauts’ work at the station. But the astronaut’s problem could not be fully diagnosed and resolved due to limited medical equipment on the ISS – hence, an early return.
Whatever the issue, it seemed to arise immediately. on 7th January NASA officials gave this information The ISS crew had completed preparations for the spacewalk that Fincke and Cardman were to execute the next day. Just four hours later, the agency delayed the spacewalk, citing a medical condition aboard the space station and the astronaut’s condition was stable.
NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said, routinely, astronauts are trained to deal with medical issues that arise on the ISS. “Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action,” he said. Had one of the current astronauts in orbit been a medical doctor, the agency’s response would have been no different, Isaacman said.
The four astronauts of Crew-11 arrive at the ISS on August 1, 2025, after launching aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. The crew’s tenure in space was expected to continue until mid-February 2026, a six-and-a-half-month ISS tenure for the SpaceX crew.
In order for the affected astronaut to receive medical care on the ground, NASA would have to bring the entire crew and their vehicle home because there are no spare crew-ready capsules on the ISS and NASA prefers to avoid ever putting astronauts in orbit without a ride home.
Also currently aboard the orbiting laboratory are NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. The three arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November 2025 and will remain on the ISS.
NASA is still finalizing when Crew-11 will return to Earth – considering standard factors such as weather conditions where the capsule is expected to splash down in the ocean. The agency is also determining whether to proceed with the launch of the next mission, Crew-12. This is another mission operated by SpaceX that is currently scheduled to arrive in mid-February. Crew-12 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fadeyev.
Although this incident is a shocking first for NASA and the ISS, it probably shouldn’t be, considering the extent to which humans have already leapt into space exploration. And this will happen more often in the future.
“It seems unusual now, but it’s a preview of what the new normal will be if humans go to space in greater numbers,” says Bimm. “People will get sick, and sometimes contingencies have to be used.”
Editor’s note (1/8/26): This article was updated after posting to include additional information.
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