NASA considering bringing astronauts home early from ISS over medical issue

NASA is considering bringing backmost a unit from the ISS aboriginal due to the fact that of aesculapian issues.

Hours before, the abstraction bureau cancelled a spacewalk that was scheduled for Thursday.

A NASA spokeswoman said the astronaut, who wasn't named for aesculapian privateness reasons, was ‌in a unchangeable information connected the ISS.

"Safely conducting ​our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating ‍all options, including the anticipation of an earlier extremity to Crew-11's mission," the spokeswoman said.

Crew-11 has been connected the ISS since August past twelvemonth and was owed to instrumentality astir May this year.

The station's designated commander, Mike Fincke, and Zena Cardman, the formation engineer, were expected to behaviour a 6.5-hour spacewalk connected Thursday to instal hardware extracurricular the station.

Spacewalks are unsafe and instrumentality a batch of planning. It's not uncommon for NASA to cancel them if thing isn't rather right.

In 2024, a spacewalk was cancelled last-minute due to the fact that an astronaut experienced "spacesuit discomfort".

In 2021, astronaut Mark Vande Hei called disconnected his spacewalk implicit a pinched nerve.

The four-person Crew-11 unit includes the US astronauts Cardman and Fincke, arsenic good arsenic Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

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Some of the unit had volunteered to instrumentality portion successful experiments to code wellness challenges astronauts whitethorn look connected heavy abstraction missions, according to NASA - though determination is nary proposition this is linked.

The unit are taking portion successful simulated satellite landings, arsenic good arsenic oculus and encephalon tests, MRI scans and different aesculapian exams.

There's been a changeless beingness connected the ISS for implicit 25 years, with astronauts rotating successful and retired connected missions that tin past implicit a year.

Generally, though, missions past betwixt six and 8 months.

In bid to bring a unit location early, the abstraction bureau volition request to coordinate its replacement.

Sky News has contacted NASA for an update.