NASA considering early ISS crew return after astronaut medical issue

• NASA is considering bringing Crew-11 home early after an astronaut medical issue.
• The planned spacewalk was to be conducted by NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman.
• NASA has stated the crew member's situation is stable and will announce a new date for the spacewalk later.

A crew member aboard the International Space Station has a medical issue that forced postponement of today's two-astronaut spacewalk — and NASA is considering sending the Crew-11 astronauts home earlier than planned, the agency announced.

NASA did not identify the crew member or provide details on the medical concern, citing privacy issues in a brief blog post. The crew member's medical condition arose the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 7, and the member is in stable condition.

"Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission. These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely," a NASA statement said.

NASA public affairs personnel did not immediately return messages seeking more information this morning.

Planned spacewalk postponed

NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, the ISS commander, and Zena Cardman, a flight engineer, were scheduled to exit the ISS and perform power upgrade work during a 6½-hour spacewalk, including installing equipment and routing cables for a future solar array. 

Fincke and Cardman are members of NASA's Crew-11, which also incudes Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The quartet launched into low-Earth orbit Aug. 1 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.

Also aboard the ISS are NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Mikaev and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The trio launched to the orbiting outpost on Thanksgiving aboard a Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA Crew-12 to launch Feb. 15

NASA is targeting Feb. 15 to launch Crew-12 — the next crew rotation to the ISS — for a long-duration mission.

Crew-12 consists of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

The crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 from the Cape.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at[email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1