ISS sees first ever medical evacuation
Four members of the International Space Station (ISS) are coming back to Earth following NASA’s first ever medical evacuation. Americans Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui were shown on video undocking from the station after spending five months in orbit.
“Our timing of this departure is unexpected,” Cardman said before the return trip, “but what was not surprising to me was how well this crew came together as a family to help each other and just take care of each other.”
NASA has not revealed which member of the crew had the health issue or provided details about it. But it has said that it is not an emergency, with NASA official, Rob Navias, saying that the crew member “was and continues to be in stable condition.”
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule carried the four members down to the California coast. “First and foremost, we are all OK. Everyone on board is stable, safe, and well cared for,” Fincke, the pilot of SpaceX Crew-11, posted on social media. “This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists. It’s the right call, even if it’s a bit bittersweet.”
In 65 years of space travel, NASA hasn’t had a single medical evacuation, despite computer modelling predicting one on the ISS every three years. Russia meanwhile evacuated cosmonaut Valdimir Vasyutin in 1985 after contracting a serious infection or related illness on board the Salyut 7 space station. There have also been other Soviet cosmonauts that encountered less serious issues and had to return to Earth early.
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