{"id":696459,"date":"2026-01-15T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696459\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:01:12","slug":"international-space-station-astronauts-begin-evacuation-due-to-serious-medical-condition-science-climate-tech-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696459\/","title":{"rendered":"International Space Station astronauts begin evacuation due to ‘serious medical condition’ | Science, Climate & Tech News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four astronauts are buckling up for an unexpected return from the International Space Station (ISS) after one of them suffered a “serious medical condition”. <\/p>\n

It’s the first time in its 25-year history that a mission is being cut short due to such an incident.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/a><\/strong> will not say which of the four astronauts is affected due to confidentiality, nor will it state what the problem is.<\/p>\n

The person’s condition is said to be stable and the space<\/a><\/strong> agency’s medical chief, Dr. James Polk, said last week they were “erring on the side of caution”<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"(L-R)<\/p>\n

Image:
\n (L-R) Oleg Platonov, Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui. Pic: SpaceX<\/p>\n

The crew in the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft undocked just after 10.20pm UK time and drifted away from the space station.<\/p>\n

Splashdown off California is being targeted for 8.41am on Thursday, according to an ISS<\/a><\/strong> post on X.<\/p>\n

The crew is made up of Americans Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.<\/p>\n

They arrived at the ISS via a Space X<\/a><\/strong> mission in August and were intending on staying for at least six months.<\/p>\n

Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore says up to now, ISS astronauts, backed by a flight surgeon and other medics on the ground, have been able to deal with all medical incidents.<\/p>\n

These have included a blood clot in the jugular vein of an unnamed astronaut a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The ISS serves as a space laboratory and is the size of a football pitch. Pic: NASA<\/p>\n

The ISS has more than 190 drugs on board as well as medical equipment, including an ultra-sound machine, defibrillator and an intravenous therapy kit.<\/p>\n

The emergency means the first planned spacewalk of 2026 has been cancelled. Cardman and Fincke were planning to venture outside to make preparations for some new solar panels.<\/p>\n

“I’m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” said NASA boss Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
US launches phase two of plan to end Gaza conflict<\/a>
Sting pays \u00a3595k to The Police bandmates, court hears<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The evacuation leaves three others behind at the ISS; NASA’s Chris Williams and Russia’s Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov.<\/p>\n

They arrived in November and are not due home until the summer.<\/p>\n

NASA is planning on taking the 400-tonne space station – which circles the Earth at around 17,500mph – out of orbit in late 2030 or early 2031.<\/p>\n

The structure will be brought down in the ocean, and the vision is for privately-funded space stations to fill the gap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four astronauts are buckling up for an unexpected return from the International Space Station (ISS) after one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-696459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115896181381771533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}