{"id":359806,"date":"2026-01-08T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/359806\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:56:11","slug":"astronaut-sickness-may-spark-first-ever-evacuation-from-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/359806\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut sickness may spark first ever evacuation from space station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nasa is considering a medical evacuation from the International Space Station after an astronaut developed an unspecified \u201cmedical concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US space agency said that the situation involved a single crew member who was \u201cstable\u201d but that one of the possible next steps was to bring back to Earth all four of Crew 11, whose six-month stay on board the ISS is not due to end until February 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafely conducting our missions is our highest priority and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11\u2019s mission,\u201d the agency stated.<\/p>\n

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Nasa has never evacuated crew from space due to a medical situation but has contingency plans in place for doing so, including leaving spacecraft docked at the ISS as \u201clifeboats\u201d to get them back to Earth. \u201cThese are the situations Nasa and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely,\u201d Nasa added in its statement.<\/p>\n

Crew 11 arrived at the ISS in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in August 2025 and were due to return to Earth on February 21. The crew comprises the American astronauts Mike Fincke, 58, and Zena Cardman, 38, along with Kimiya Yui, 55, from Japan, and Oleg Platonov, 39, from Russia.<\/p>\n

\"Astronaut<\/p>\n

Mike Fincke, an American<\/p>\n

NASA\/BILL STAFORD<\/p>\n

\"Oleg<\/p>\n

Oleg Platonov from Russia<\/p>\n

NASA\/ROBERT MARKOWITZ<\/p>\n

Nasa has not revealed which of the four is sick, to protect their medical privacy.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, shortly before its initial announcement that a \u201cmedical concern\u201d had arisen sometime during the afternoon, Nasa cut public access to its live radio feeds by which crew communicate with Mission Control in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Crew 11 leaves in a SpaceX capsule on August 1 in Cape Canaveral<\/p>\n

JOEL KOWSKY\/NASA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Cardman and Fincke had been due to conduct a 6.5-hour spacewalk \u2014 known as an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) \u2014 on Thursday, to fit new hardware on the station\u2019s exterior in readiness for the installation of new solar arrays later this year.<\/p>\n

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Also on board the complex are one other American, Chris Williams, 42, who is a medical physicist, and two other cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, 42, and Sergei Mikayev, 39, who arrived together in a Russian Soyuz capsule in November. Four new astronauts, Crew 12, are due to head to the ISS no earlier than February 15.<\/p>\n

\"Astronaut<\/p>\n

Zena Cardman of America<\/p>\n

ROBERT MARKOWITZ\/NASA<\/p>\n

\"Astronaut<\/p>\n

Yui Kimiya of Japan<\/p>\n

SPACEX<\/p>\n

Yui and Williams were supposed to have provided support for the EVA from inside the complex, including helping Fincke and Cardman into their spacesuits, \u201cin my opinion the greatest responsibility on one of the most challenging and rewarding days for astronauts\u201d, Cardman had stated in her most recent social media post yesterday, prior to Nasa\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

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She added: \u201cKimiya is a technical master, but I love him even more for his selfless nature, bottomless patience and perfect blend of humour and humility. When I\u2019m having a rough day, Kimiya somehow shows up at exactly the right moment with a piece of chocolate, saying \u2018thank you for your hard work\u2019 \u2014 and everything becomes magically better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week marked Yui-san\u2019s 300th cumulative day in space, and I feel so lucky to have shared some of that time with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nasa is considering a medical evacuation from the International Space Station after an astronaut developed an unspecified \u201cmedical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-359806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}