NASA to bring four ISS crew home early in a "controlled medical evacuation"

NASA will bring four astronauts home from the International Space Station on Wednesday in what the agency called a "controlled medical evacuation" after a crew member developed an undisclosed medical issue. The group will return in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule about a month earlier than planned; NASA did not identify the astronaut or the medical condition.

The four returning crew members are Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos. It was the first trip to space for Cardman and Platonov, Fincke's fourth mission and Yui's second. NASA canceled a spacewalk last week because of a medical issue on board but said the affected astronaut was stable, did not require an immediate hospital trip and that the issue was neither related to the spacewalk nor a work-related injury.

The crew will close hatches at about 3:30 p.m. Eastern, with NASA video coverage beginning at 3 p.m.; undocking is scheduled for 5:05 p.m., with live coverage beginning at 4:45 p.m. Because the return is not an emergency, it will follow standard procedures: about eight hours in orbit after undocking while the capsule aligns for reentry, a deorbit burn, reentry forces, parachute deployment and a splashdown in the Pacific off Southern California expected at 3:41 a.m.

Eastern on Thursday. Recovery teams will bring the capsule aboard a ship, doctors will examine the astronauts, and they will be flown to shore by helicopter.

Key Topics

Science, Nasa, International Space Station, Spacex Crew Dragon, Medical Evacuation, Zena Cardman