Station on Wednesday, January 14 at 5:00 PM EST, marking the first medical evacuation in the station’s 25+ year history of continuous habitation.
Timeline:
Undocking: Jan 14, 5:00 PM EST (2200 GMT)
Splashdown: Jan 15, ~3:40 AM EST (0840 GMT)
Location: Pacific Ocean, off California coast
Contingency: Weather dependent
The Crew:
- Mike Fincke (NASA)
- Zena Cardman (NASA)
- Kimiya Yui (JAXA)
- Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos)
The crew launched August 2, 2025 for a planned ~6-month mission but will return approximately two weeks early.
What We Know:
- A spacewalk scheduled for January 8 (Fincke & Cardman) was postponed due to an unspecified astronaut “medical concern”
- NASA announced the early return on January 9 to allow better diagnosis and treatment
- The affected astronaut and specific medical issue have not been disclosed due to privacy concerns
- Dr. James Polk (NASA’s chief health and medical officer) provided limited details at Thursday’s press conference
Discussion:
This is unprecedented in ISS history. What implications does this have for:
- Long-duration spaceflight protocols?
- Future deep space missions (Artemis, Mars)?
- Medical privacy vs. public transparency in government-funded missions?
Thoughts on how this might affect crew rotation schedules and the upcoming missions?
Source: NASA
