“This was not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations,” Polk said.
In light of the Crew-11 return, NASA and SpaceX are now looking at ways to expedite the launch of the next crewed mission to the International Space Station, called Crew-12. The flight was originally set to launch on February 15 at the earliest, the space agency said previously.
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Typically, NASA prefers having new astronauts arrive at the space station before crews living on board depart for Earth, so there can be a handover of operations between the two groups. But with Crew-11 leaving early, the station will have two Russian cosmonauts and a lone NASA astronaut, Christopher Williams, on board until Crew-12 arrives.
“Chris is trained to do every task that we would ask him to do on the vehicle,” Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, told reporters.
Astronauts have dealt with medical episodes in space before that have interrupted work assignments. In 2021, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei suffered a pinched nerve that forced the space agency to postpone a planned spacewalk.
And in 2020, a case study revealed that an unidentified astronaut developed a blood clot in the jugular vein while living aboard the International Space Station.
The astronaut landed safely at the end of their six-month mission following prescribed treatment from NASA and doctors.
Bloomberg
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