STORY: "It's in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure."
NASA is bringing the four-astronaut team "Crew-11", back from the International Space Station (ISS) due to one member's "serious medical issue."
A senior NASA official said that it was the first time in the ISS's 25-year history that a mission ended early due to a medical issue.
Jared Isaacman is NASA's administrator:
"As we mentioned before, obviously, this you know, this was a serious medical condition. That is why we're pursuing this path. Crew member is stable, as we mentioned. We're not electing an emergency deorbit."
NASA officials did not name the affected crew member, citing privacy.
The issue led NASA to cancel a planned spacewalk scheduled for Thursday.
NASA's chief medical officer, James Polk provided more details on the issue:
"Once again, this is not an operational issue. This is not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations, if that was the question. But unrelated to the operational environment that we have right now, it's mostly having a medical issue and the difficult areas of microgravity and with the suite of hardware that we have at our avail to complete a diagnosis."
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Crew-11 arrived at the ISS after launching from Florida in August 2025 and were originally due to return around May this year.
Astronauts rarely acknowledge or describe their medical conditions publicly.
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In the past, NASA has canceled spacewalks for medical reasons, such as "spacesuit discomfort" in 2024 and a "pinched nerve" in 2021.
