NASA is performing an unprecedented medical evacuation from the ISS

For the primary time, astronauts are being evacuated from the Worldwide House Station (ISS) for medical causes. The precise nature of the “medical state of affairs” has not been recognized for privateness causes, nor has the astronaut it has affected. However 4 of the seven crew members on board the ISS are coming house early.

The astronauts returning to Earth are the members of the Crew-11 mission, which launched on 1 August and was initially deliberate to return in late February. In an 8 January press convention, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman mentioned that the choice to return the astronauts early was made partly as a result of the mission targets are almost all full, so ending the mission early will not be as huge of a deal. 

“As a result of the astronaut is totally secure, this isn’t an emergent evacuation,” mentioned NASA’s chief well being and medical officer, James Polk, through the press convention. “We’re not instantly disembarking and getting the astronaut down.” Emergency medical evacuations might be carried out in a matter of hours, Isaacman mentioned, however on this case the crew will likely be evacuated within the subsequent few days.

There have been medical incidents aboard the ISS earlier than, however till now all of them have been minor sufficient that they might be handled in orbit. “We’ve got a really sturdy suite of medical {hardware} on board the Worldwide House Station, however we don’t have the entire quantity of {hardware} that I might have within the emergency division, for instance, to finish a workup of the affected person,” mentioned Polk. “The medical incident was adequate sufficient that we have been involved sufficient in regards to the astronaut [and] we wish to full that workup, and the easiest way to finish that workup is on the bottom.”

The 4 members of Crew-11 – two NASA astronauts, one Russian cosmonaut and one Japanese astronaut – will trip house aboard the identical Dragon spacecraft that shuttled them to the ISS, regardless of solely one in every of them being in poor health or injured. A number of medical services on Earth will likely be ready forward of time to soak up the affected crew member for assessments and therapy. Whereas this case is unprecedented, the precise evacuation operation will not be considerably completely different from how crews normally return to Earth on the finish of their missions, Isaacman mentioned.

“Within the 25 years of the historical past of the Worldwide House Station we’ve had many fashions… which have mentioned that we must always’ve had a medical evacuation roughly each three years… and we’ve not had one thus far,” says Polk.

The evacuation will depart only one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS till the arrival of the Crew-12 mission, which was initially slated to launch round 15 February however could also be moved up after this incident.