NASA’s first medical evacuation is here. It won’t be the last.

Crew-11 mission astronauts pause outside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building en route to launch complex LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 1, 2025. From left: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, NASA astronaut and mission commander Zena Cardman, and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui. | Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images

The first medical evacuation in the history of the International Space Station (ISS) is happening today.

Crew-11 will return to Earth ahead of schedule because of an unspecified medical issue. Included in the group are NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. NASA didn’t specify what the exact condition was or which astronaut was dealing with an issue, citing privacy concerns, but indicated that the person’s condition is stable.

The reason why the whole crew must return home (and in the SpaceX capsule they came from) is because there are no spare crew-ready capsules at the moment, and NASA wants to avoid leaving astronauts in orbit without a way back. Crew-11, which left for the ISS in August, was nearing the end of its six-month mission anyway, making the call a bit simpler.

The ISS, which originally launched in 1998, has been continuously occupied by rotating crews of astronauts since late 2000, and it serves as an important international laboratory for developing new technologies and medicines, as well as studying life in the space environment. However, Crew-11’s departure doesn’t mean the ISS will be empty; it will be staffed by a skeleton crew of three until Crew-12 arrives in mid-February.

NASA’s chief health and medical officer James Polk said that the medical issue was not an injury sustained while performing........

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