Post by : Bianca
Haleem
NASA has opted to terminate a mission on the International Space Station (ISS) earlier than initially planned after a health issue arose with one astronaut.
The U.S. space agency disclosed on Thursday that a team of four astronauts, including American, Japanese, and Russian crew members, will head back to Earth in the upcoming days. The mission was expected to extend for at least six months.
In light of this health matter, NASA also scrapped its first scheduled spacewalk of the year. The agency withheld the name of the astronaut involved and specifics regarding the medical condition, emphasizing patient privacy. NASA confirmed that the astronaut is currently in stable health.
Currently, seven astronauts are conducting operations aboard the ISS. The returning crew arrived at the station in August following a launch from Florida via a SpaceX rocket.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman expressed the agency’s commitment to astronaut welfare, stating, “I’m proud of the rapid response from across the agency to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” during a press briefing.
The returning team includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Fincke and Cardman were slated to perform a spacewalk to prep the station for the upcoming installation of new solar panels aimed at enhancing the power supply.
This mission represented Fincke’s fourth journey to the ISS, while it was Yui’s second. For Cardman and Platonov, this marked their inaugural trip to space.
Meanwhile, three other astronauts—NASA’s Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov—remain at the space station. They launched in November aboard a Soyuz rocket and are anticipated to return to Earth in the summer.
NASA has laid out its plans to safely decommission the International Space Station by late 2030 or early 2031. SpaceX has been selected to aid in guiding the station out of orbit, with a controlled reentry projected over the ocean.
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