00:00NASA is considering a rare early return of its crew from the International Space Station over an unspecified medical issue involving one of the astronauts.
00:11The agency announced the news after cancelling a planned spacewalk that had been scheduled for Thursday.
00:17A NASA statement did not specify which of the astronauts was affected, but said they were in a stable condition on the orbiting laboratory.
00:26Astronauts typically live aboard the ISS in six- to eight-month rotations with access to basic medical equipment.
00:35The four-person Crew-11 crew includes US astronauts Xena Cardman and Mike Fink, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platinov.
00:46Fink, the station's designated commander, and Cardman, were scheduled to conduct a 6.5-hour spacewalk on Thursday to install hardware outside the station.
00:58All four have been on the space station since launching from Florida in August, and were scheduled to return around May this year.
01:079, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ignition. Ignition to full power and liftoff. Go Falcon. Go NASA. Go Crew-11.
01:23Together we rise as NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 heads up to the International Space Station.
Be the first to comment