A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying a four-member international crew is returning to Earth in what officials described as the first emergency medical evacuation from the International Space Station (ISS), following a serious but unspecified health issue affecting one of the astronauts.
The unplanned return mission began on Wednesday (US time), after flight surgeons and mission managers determined that the astronaut required care back on Earth. The capsule, operated under a commercial crew partnership with NASA, undocked from the orbiting laboratory and started its descent toward a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California early Thursday.
Live video broadcast on NASA’s webcast showed the Crew Dragon slowly separating from the ISS and drifting away against the backdrop of Earth, as the two spacecraft orbited roughly 415 kilometres above the planet, south of Australia. Inside the capsule, the astronauts were seen strapped into their seats, wearing helmeted white-and-black pressure suits as standard undocking procedures were carried out.
NASA has declined to identify which crew member fell ill or to provide details about the nature of the medical emergency, citing strict medical privacy rules. Officials stressed that the decision to return early was made out of an abundance of caution.
The crew includes US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The quartet arrived at the space station after launching from Florida in August for what was originally planned as a long-duration science mission.
Fincke, the station’s designated commander, and Cardman, serving as flight engineer, had been scheduled to conduct a spacewalk lasting more than six hours last week to install new hardware outside the ISS. That spacewalk was cancelled on January 7 after NASA reported a “medical concern” involving an astronaut.
NASA’s chief health and medical officer, James Polk, later said the emergency was not related to an injury sustained during station operations. If recovery operations proceed as planned, Thursday’s splashdown will conclude a mission that ultimately lasted 167 days.
