Nasa astronauts begin ‘bittersweet’ medical evacuation from space station

Four astronauts departed the International Space Station a month early in the first medical evacuation since the station was placed in Earth orbit in 1998.

The astronauts, known as Crew 11, are expected to land off the coast of California early Thursday local time.

NASA said their trip was cut short due to a medical issue involving a crew member. The agency did not provide details about the crew member or the nature of the medical problem but said their condition was stable.

Control of the ISS was handed over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and two other crew members.

Astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov arrived at the ISS on August 1 to complete their standard six-and-a-half-month stay. They were due to come home in mid-February.

However, last week’s planned spacewalk by Fincke and Cardman was canceled at the last minute. Hours later, NASA announced that one of the crew members had fallen ill.

“This is bittersweet,” Mr. Fincke said Monday as he handed the keys to the ISS to Kud-Sverchjov.

In a social media post, he stressed that all crew members on board were “sound, safe and well cared for.”

Orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 250 miles, the International Space Station (ISS) orbits our planet 16 times a day, traveling at 17,500 miles per hour.

It is managed by five space agencies and conducts extensive scientific research on the effects of living in space and microgravity on humans, animals and plants.

The ISS carries some medical equipment and astronauts are trained to deal with minor medical problems, but there is no doctor on board.

The early departure leaves the ISS with a small crew of just three astronauts (NASA’s Chris Williams and cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev) until another four astronauts arrive in February.

“Despite all the changes and all the difficulties, we will do our job on the ISS, we will carry out all the scientific tasks, maintenance tasks here, no matter what,” Kud-Sverchkov said on Monday.

Then he gave his first command: group hug.

The reduced crew will likely mean that scientific work on the ISS will be dialed back.

This incident is unprecedented in the history of the ISS, which has been continuously crewed for 26 years.

Only twice before have space missions ended prematurely due to health problems.

In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues returned four months early from their mission to the Salyut 7 space station due to a urological problem.

And in 1987, a cardiac arrhythmia caused Soviet cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin to leave the Mir space station early.

As more and more people travel to space, including through tourism and possible invasions of the Moon and even Mars, space experts say doctors will need to travel on missions.