WASHINGTON: According to senior space agency officials, NASA had to return the astronaut and three crew members to Earth months ahead of schedule due to a “serious medical condition” on board the International Space Station. This is the first such emergency return in the orbiting laboratory’s 25-year history.
In a brief press conference in Washington on Thursday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters that he and medical officials decided to return the astronaut, who he did not identify, because “the capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station.”The “
Citing the crew member’s right to privacy, NASA officials did not specify which of the four astronauts on the Crew-11 mission was having the medical problem or what it was.
According to a BBC story, a NASA source stated, “This is not an emergency evacuation,” adding, “We always err on the side of the astronaut’s health.”
The agency cites the incapacity to identify and manage conditions on ISS.
NASA officials stated that an update on the astronauts’ return schedule was anticipated within 48 hours.
Citing a “medical concern,” NASA abruptly canceled a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday, when two astronauts were scheduled to leave the International Space Station, on Wednesday.
Following the last-minute cancelation of the spacewalk, a NASA spokeswoman stated on Wednesday that “safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew 11’s mission.”
The initial early evacuation
The ISS has been continually occupied since 2000, but this is the first early evacuation in its existence.
The group, known as Crew-11, is made up of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, Kimiya Yui from Japan’s JAXA space agency, and NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke.
According to officials, two Russian cosmonauts will accompany one American astronaut who will stay on the International Space Station.
This was the first time in NASA’s more than 65-year history that a mission will return early due to a medical concern, Dr. James Polk, the organization’s chief health and medical officer, told reporters.
After being replaced by another four-person crew a few days earlier, Crew-11 was scheduled to stay in orbit for approximately six months until returning to the International Space Station (ISS) next month. Crew-11 launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in August of last year.
Similar to a secure video or phone consultation with a general practitioner, the ISS contains basic medical equipment, supplies, and communication technologies that allow doctors on Earth to speak discreetly with astronauts in space, assess their condition, and recommend therapy.
According to Dr. Simeon Barber, a space scientist at the Open University, returning the four-person crew early might cause several experiments and maintenance activities to be postponed until the next crew arrives next month.
According to him, “the space station is a big, complex feat of engineering, designed to be operated by a certain minimum level of crew.”
The surviving crew would likely have to “dial back on some of the more experimental work and focus more just on the housekeeping and keeping the station healthy, waiting for the full complement of crew to be restored,” he continued.
Spacewalks, which include heavy spacesuits and well planned instructions while connected to the International Space Station, are difficult and dangerous tasks that call for months of training.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
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