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CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, said during a press conference on Thursday evening that Crew-11’s mission on the International Space Station will be cut short after one of its astronauts suffered an unknown medical issue.
What You Need To Know
- NASA has not released the name of the astronaut
- The U.S. space agency has not stated what the medical issue is
- Crew-11 mission will be cut short; Crew-12 launch could be sooner than expected
Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, and NASA’s Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. James Polk stressed that this is not an emergency de-orbit and while they would not name the astronaut and say what the medical issue was that happened on Wednesday, they did say he or she is in stable condition.
“Our crews are extensively trained, as the administrator mentioned, to manage unexpected medical situations and other off nominal events, including onboard training, which we conduct regularly for these situations. Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action,” said Kshatriya.
Polk said that while the International Space Station has medical hardware and the astronauts are trained, he said getting the astronaut back to Earth is the best option to fully assess the medical condition.
The astronaut is stable and in the 25 years of operations, there have been no medical emergencies on the International Space Station, said the three men.
Polk added that in this new event, officials are erring on the side of caution and are not considering a medical emergency since the astronaut is not immediately coming back down to Earth.
Polk said what happened was not the result of getting ready for a planned spacewalk on Thursday.
Crew-11 is made up of NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke, along with mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
Fincke and Cardman were set to conduct a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on Thursday at 8 a.m. ET, to install a modification kit and cables for a future rollout of a solar array.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the Crew-11 mission will be cut short after one of its members suffered a medical issue. (NASA)
Isaacman said that NASA teams are working to get Crew-11 home earlier so the astronaut can be evaluated and treated.
NASA is also considering moving up the Crew-12 launch earlier, which was supposed to go up sometime in February, Isaacman said, who added that an earlier Crew-12 timeline will not impact the launch of the Artemis II moon mission set for early next month.
Spectrum News asked Isaacman if NASA would consider having a medical doctor on board the International Space Station and future space missions.
“All of our astronauts go through extensive medical training. There is, as I described before, a lot of capabilities on the International Space Station that our astronauts interact with routinely, whether it’s part of their science and research obligations or just training simulations for these type of contingencies. I don’t think if we if one of our astronauts on board was a medical doctor, it would have changed anything, as it relates to our decision process on this,” he answered.
“I think that speaks to their level of training. Also, our our teams on the ground, we have flight surgeons and not to mention numerous other surgeons and doctors that are available to weigh in on these type of situations.”
The four Crew-11 members left from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in August 2025.
They were expected to be onboard the International Space Station for between six to eight months.
Once they left, Chris Williams will be the only American astronaut left onboard the space station, along with two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev.
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Anthony Leone
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