{"id":238635,"date":"2026-01-15T02:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/238635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T02:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:37:06","slug":"nasa-sends-4-astronauts-back-to-earth-in-first-medical-evacuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/238635\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA sends 4 astronauts back to Earth in first medical evacuation"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An astronaut in need of doctors’ care departed the International Space Station<\/a> with three crewmates on Wednesday in NASA’s first medical evacuation.<\/p>\n

The four returning astronauts \u2014 from the U.S., Russia and Japan \u2014 are aiming for an early Thursday morning splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego with SpaceX. The decision cuts short their mission by over a month. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur timing of this departure is unexpected,\u201d NASA astronaut Zena Cardman said before the return trip, \u201cbut what was not surprising to me was how well this crew came together as a family to help each other and just take care of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials refused to identify the astronaut who needed care last week<\/a> and would not divulge the health concerns. <\/p>\n

The ailing astronaut is \u201cstable, safe and well cared for,\u201d outgoing space station commander Mike Fincke said earlier this week via social media. \u201cThis was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists.”<\/p>\n

Launched in August<\/a>, Cardman, Fincke, Japan\u2019s Kimiya Yui and Russia\u2019s Oleg Platonov should have remained on the space station until late February. But on Jan. 7, NASA abruptly canceled the next day\u2019s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke and later announced the crew\u2019s early return. Officials said the health problem was unrelated to spacewalk preparations or other station operations, but offered no other details, citing medical privacy. They stressed it was not an emergency situation.<\/p>\n

NASA said it would stick to the same entry and splashdown procedures at flight\u2019s end, with the usual assortment of medical experts aboard the recovery ship in the Pacific. It was another middle-of-the-night crew return for SpaceX, coming less than 11 hours after undocking from the space station. NASA said it was not yet known how quickly all four would be flown from California to Houston, home to Johnson Space Center and the base for astronauts.<\/p>\n

One U.S. and two Russian astronauts remain aboard the orbiting lab, just 1 1\/2 months into an eight-month mission that began with a Soyuz rocket liftoff from Kazakhstan<\/a>. NASA and SpaceX are working to move up the launch of a fresh four-person crew from Florida, currently targeted for mid-February. <\/p>\n

Computer modeling predicted a medical evacuation from the space station every three years, but NASA hasn’t had one in its 65 years of human spaceflight<\/a>. The Russians have not been as fortunate. In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin came down with a serious infection or related illness aboard his country\u2019s Salyut 7 space station, prompting an early return. A few other Soviet cosmonauts encountered less serious health issues that shortened their flights.<\/p>\n

It was the first spaceflight for Cardman, a 38, biologist and polar explorer who missed out on spacewalking, as well as Platonov, 39, a former fighter pilot with the Russian Air Force who had to wait a few extra years to get to space because of an undisclosed health issue. Cardman should have launched last year but was bumped to make room on the way down for NASA\u2019s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams<\/a>, who were stuck nearly a year at the space station because of Boeing\u2019s capsule problems.<\/p>\n

Fincke, 58, a retired Air Force colonel, and Yui, 55, a retired fighter pilot with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, were repeat space fliers. Finke has spent 1 1\/2 years in orbit over four missions and conducted nine spacewalks on previous flights, making him one of NASA\u2019s top performers. Last week, Yui celebrated his 300th day in space over two station stays, sharing stunning views of Earth, including Japan\u2019s Mount Fuji and breathtaking auroras. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to burn it firmly into my eyes, and even more so, into my heart,\u201d Yui said on the social platform X. \u201cSoon, I too will become one of those small lights on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA officials had said it was riskier to leave the astronaut in space without proper medical attention for another month than to temporarily reduce the size of the space station crew by more than half. Until SpaceX delivers another crew, NASA said it will have to stand down from any routine or even emergency spacewalks, a two-person job requiring backup help from crew inside the orbiting complex.<\/p>\n

The medical evacuation was the first major decision by NASA\u2019s new administrator Jared Isaacman. The billionaire founder of a payment processing company and two-time space flier assumed the agency\u2019s top job in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health and the well-being of our astronauts is always and will be our highest priority,\u201d Isaacman said in announcing the decision last week.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An astronaut in need of doctors’ care departed the International Space Station with three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[128825,7265,51800,127,122,85,46,5380,141,2247,125,917],"class_list":{"0":"post-238635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-128825","9":"tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","10":"tag-aerospace-technology","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-planets","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-space-exploration","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}