NASA will bring the four-member Crew-11 team back from the International Space Station approximately one month early due to a “serious medical condition” affecting one astronaut. The agency emphasized this is not an emergency evacuation and the crew member is in stable condition, but declined to disclose details citing health privacy.
This marks the first early medical evacuation in the ISS’s 24-year history of continuous habitation. The condition is not related to space operations or an injury. The return timeline will be updated within 48 hours. With Crew-11’s early departure, one American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts will maintain station operations, potentially delaying some experiments until the next crew arrives.
