Officials at NASA and SpaceX have announced that they will return four astronauts from the International Space Station to Earth earlier than planned due to an “unexpected medical issue” with one of the crewmembers.The SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts had been due to return to Earth late next month, but on Thursday, NASA announced its decision to cut the mission short due to a “medical concern with a crew member currently living and working aboard the orbital laboratory.” The crewmember, who was not identified due to medical privacy guidelines, is in stable condition, NASA said.“It’s not an emergent evacuation,” James Polk, NASA’s chief medical officer, said at a news conference on Friday. “But we are erring on the side of caution for the crew member and in their best interest.”When are they coming home?The four astronauts — NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos astronaut Oleg Platonov — are scheduled to depart the ISS on the Dragon Endeavour capsule at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 14, and are expected to splash down off the coast of California on Thursday, Jan. 15, at approximately 3:40 a.m. ET.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown,” NASA said in an updated mission overview. The crew will be evaluated by NASA’s medical team upon their return.The International Space Station. (NASA)It will be the first-ever medical evacuation of astronauts from the ISS. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchko and Sergei Mikaev, and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, will remain on board the ISS to complete their six-month mission, which began in November.Fincke is expected to relinquish control of the ISS to Kud-Sverchkov in a change-of-command ceremony on Monday.How is everyone doing?In a post on LinkedIn, Fincke, who has served as …
