Experiencing a mysterious illness, four cross-country astronauts were evacuated from the International Space Station. They returned to Earth after spending a month in space with serious medical problems.
Reported BBC IndonesiaMonday (19/1/2025), the four astronauts who landed on Earth, on Thursday (15/01), were the captain of the space crew from NASA, Mike Fincke, the first person to leave the spacecraft. Mike smiled and his movements swayed slightly, he was then placed on a stretcher, following standard procedure.
Next was Finckle followed by Zena Cardman from NASA, Kimiya Yui from Japan, and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov from Russia. They waved and smiled at the camera.
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“It’s so good to be back home!” Cardman said.
This is the first time astronauts have been evacuated due to health problems since the station was placed in Earth orbit in 1998.
Last Minute Cancellations
The four members of the team, known as Crew-11, underwent medical examinations after landing off the coast of California, United States. In a press conference after the sea landing, NASA chief Jared Isaacman said the ailing astronaut was “doing well” and “in good spirits.”
Judging from NASA’s previous communications regarding astronaut health, it is likely that the identity of the sick crew member or details of their health problems will not be revealed to the public.
Control of the International Space Station (ISS) has been transferred to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and two other crew members.
The plan is for the four astronauts to be on the ISS for six and a half months, scheduled to return to Earth in mid-February. However, in the second week of January the space trip scheduled by Fincke and Cardman was canceled at the last minute.
Hours later, NASA revealed that a crew member had fallen ill. “We have mixed feelings,” said Fincke when handing over the keys to the ISS to Kud-Sverchkov, January 12.
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One of the four astronauts was returned to Earth due to ‘serious health’ problems. (BBC World)
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In a social media post, Fincke stressed that all crew members aboard the spacecraft were “stable, safe and well looked after.” The ISS has some medical equipment and the astronauts are trained to treat minor health problems, but there are no doctors on board.
The evacuation was a major test of NASA’s procedures for medical emergencies. By all reports, the test was completed successfully, although questions could arise about the agency’s response capacity if an astronaut experiences a medical emergency.
Never Happened Before
A similar event is unprecedented in the history of the ISS, a station that has been permanently manned for 26 years. Space missions have only been cut short early due to health problems on two previous occasions.
In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues returned four months ahead of schedule from a mission to the Salyut 7 space station due to urological problems.
And in 1987, cardiac arrhythmia or disturbances in the rhythm of the heartbeat forced Soviet cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin to leave the Mir space station ahead of schedule.
As more people travel to space, including for tourism and possible colonization of the Moon or even Mars, space experts say doctors need to be involved in such missions.
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