WE HAVE A PROBLEM

Astronaut’s Mystery Medical Issue Forces NASA to Consider Unusual Plan

NASA regards the medical status of astronauts on the ISS as highly secret.

NASA is weighing up a rare operation to bring one of its astronauts on the International Space Station home early. The space agency said it was due to an unspecified medical condition and did not reveal the astronaut’s name, saying only that a spacewalk scheduled for Wednesday had been called off. NASA treats medical issues on the ISS in secrecy, but the astronaut is understood to be in a stable condition. A spokesperson for NASA said, “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.” Their words followed an earlier statement where the agency said it was “monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon,” Reuters reports. The news agency reports the current Crew-11 is comprised of “U.S. astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov,” and were not due back until around May. Cardman and Fincke were due to do a 6.5-hour spacewalk on Thursday.