NASA says it is ‘evaluating all options’ as astronauts navigate medical concern in space
By Jackie Wattles, CNN
(CNN) — NASA said on Wednesday it was postponing a spacewalk at the International Space Station that was scheduled for Thursday, citing a “medical concern” with one of the crew members.
The space agency did not name the astronaut involved but confirmed later the issue was related to a “single crew member who is stable” and officials are considering next steps.
“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,” a NASA spokesperson said in a statement.
“These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely.” The spokesperson added that the agency would provide an update in the next 24 hours.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11, which includes American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, arrived at the space station on August 2. The mission, part of the orbiting laboratory’s regular staffing rotation, was expected to conclude no earlier than next month after Crew-12’s launch in mid-February.
Such rotations, managed by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, typically last about six months, and bringing a team home early before another is in place would be highly unusual.
Medical issues in space
Two of the astronauts — Fincke and Cardman — were slated to exit an airlock aboard the International Space Station on Thursday to finish preparing a power channel where a new solar array is set to be installed.
The spacewalk would be a first for Cardman, a 38-year-old geobiologist who was selected for the astronaut corps in 2017.
Fincke, who has been an astronaut since 1996, has participated in nine prior spacewalks. Venturing outside the space station again would make him the sixth American astronaut to conduct 10 spacewalks, said Bill Spetch, NASA’s operations integration manager for the orbiting laboratory, during a Wednesday news briefing.
NASA does not typically share details about medical issues that affect astronauts. Information about the impact of spaceflight on the human body or other medical concerns that occur during missions are generally made public as part of broader scientific studies and research, and specific astronauts are usually not identified.
Conditions such as space adaptation syndrome — an ailment characterized by vomiting and vertigo that is experienced by many astronauts during their first hours in microgravity — only came into focus after years of research and revelations in academic journals. The condition is common, however, and has affected astronauts dating back to the beginning of spaceflight.
An incident in which an astronaut experienced a case of jugular venous thrombosis, a dangerous condition in which a blood clot can form in a person’s jugular vein, was also revealed in an academic journal. The identity of the astronaut impacted has never been made public.
Additionally, after SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission returned from the space station in October 2024, one of the four crew members experienced a “medical issue” and was flown to a hospital in Florida.
The space agency did not provide further details at the time, saying in a statement only that the crew member was “in stable condition” and “under observation as a precautionary measure.” The identity of the crew member is still unknown.
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