Four crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing for a medical evacuation on Wednesday after one of the astronauts suffered an undisclosed health issue.
Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission will return to Earth aboard a Dragon capsule at 5.05pm EST (10:05pm in the UK), several weeks ahead of schedule.
The US space agency did not reveal more details about which crew member is affected, citing medical privacy.
It marks the first time that astronaut has been evacuated from the ISS in the 25 years that it has been continuously inhabited.
The four members of the Crew-11 mission are Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke from Nasa, Oleg Patonov from Russia’s Roscosmos and Kimiya Yyui from Japan’s JAXA space agency.
“The homebound quartet – representing Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission – spent Tuesday packing cargo, reviewing return to Earth procedures, and transferring hardware aboard the International Space Station,” Nasa said in its latest mission update.
“Mission managers have given the ‘go’ for the return to Earth… Weather is looking excellent for Dragon’s parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California at 3.41am on Thursday.”
Only three crew members will remain aboard the orbital outpost following the evacuation, with control handed from Nasa commander Finke to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
Nasa first revealed a “medical concern” with one of the crew members on Thursday after cancelling the first spacewalk of the year.
Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press conference later that day that the Crew-11 mission would end early, though stressed that it was not an “emergency deorbit”.
The unnamed astronaut was said to be in a stable condition.
“The capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station,” he said.
“We’re always going to do the right thing for our astronauts, but it’s recognising it’s the end of the Crew-11 mission right now.”
The return mission will be live streamed on Nasa+, Amazon Prime and the space agency’s YouTube channel.
