Small emergency on the International Space Station, the Crew 11 mission will return to Earth ahead of schedule. Until the launch of Crew 12, two Russians and one American remain on board
For the first time ever in NASA history, astronauts will leave the International Space Station early due to a medical issue. The American space agency announced on Thursday afternoon (January 8) that it had decided to bring the four astronauts of the mission back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX Crew-11 earlier than scheduled due to a medical issue experienced by a crew member in orbit.
The astronaut concerned, whose identity has not been revealed out of respect for confidentiality, is in stable condition and has no critical issues.
NASA’s first explanations
A first explanation of the events was provided by the director of NASA himself, Jared Isaacmanwho stated: “The ability to adequately diagnose and treat this medical problem is not present on the International Space Station; therefore care is needed on Earth as an emergency operation is not necessary, although we always maintain this capability and NASA and our partners regularly train for this.”
Who are the members of Crew-11
Crew 11 is made up of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman And Michael Finckefrom her Japanese colleague Kimiya Yui of Jaxa and from Oleg Platonov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
They were launched aboard the capsule Crew Dragon Endeavour of SpaceX on August 1st, so they were already approaching the end of the planned six-month mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, a fact that probably led to the decision to let them return.
“The Crew-11 mission has come to an end”: the decision
Isaacman explained: “We will always do the right thing for our astronauts, but now is the time to recognize that the Crew-11 mission has come to an end. They have indeed achieved almost all of the mission objectives and Crew 12 will still be leaving in a few weeks. This is the opportune time and when the reentry vehicle is ready and weather conditions allow, we will bring our crew home.”
At the time of writing, the times for departure have not yet been defined; however, NASA intends to provide timely updates in the coming days.
The health problem discovered during the mission
The health problem of the Crew 11 member emerged on Wednesday 7 January, when NASA announced the postponement of a spacewalk scheduled for Jan. 8 due to a medical issue involving an astronaut.
Considering that this spacewalk should have been conducted by Cardman and Fincke and that the word cosmonaut, referring to their Russian colleague, was not used, it is easy to hypothesize that one of the two Americans was not in a position to remain on board.
The official medical explanations
During Thursday’s press conference, Dr. James PolkNASA’s health and medical officer, said: “This is not an operational problem. It was not an injury that occurred during operations but a medical problem that manifested itself in microgravity conditions and with the medical equipment we have available to complete a diagnosis it was identified.”
The NASA medical chief also pointed out: “A medical evacuation from the ISS is not a surprising fact, the statistics indicate an event every three years and this period had already passed some time.”
Who will remain on board the International Space Station
By the time Crew 11 leaves the ISS, it will probably be occupied for a while by just three people, i.e. Christopher Williams of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov And Sergei Mikayevall of which arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on November 27.
Chris Williams will therefore be the only American to remain aboard the station for a certain period and Amit Kshatriyaassociate administrator of the US agency, explained on this point: “We manage many of the operations of the ISS from our various control centers around the world, so it will have thousands of people monitoring it to ensure it can continue to carry out its tasks.”
