Astronauts from the Crew 11 mission wave as they depart from the Operation Neil A. Armstrong Checkout Building on their way to launch Complex LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 1, 2025. From left/right: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Mike Finke, NASA cosmonaut and mission commander Zena Cardman, and JAXA. Astronaut Kamiya Yui.
Greg Newton AFP | Getty Images
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced Thursday that due to the medical condition of an unnamed crew member, NASA will return Crew 11 astronauts to Earth from the International Space Station on Saturday, earlier than scheduled.
NASA earlier announced that spacewalks outside the ISS were postponed due to a medical situation that occurred on Wednesday.
During the spacewalk, ISS Commander Mike Finke and flight engineer Zena Cardman would spend six and a half hours leaving the space station to install wiring cables and other power equipment to support the new solar array.
The agency said it would not release the names of the crew members for medical privacy reasons. Isaacman said Thursday that the crew members are considered to be in stable condition.
The return of Crew-11 astronauts was scheduled for March 2026.
Finke and Cardman are members of NASA’s Crew 11, along with colleagues Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov from the Japanese and Russian space agencies.
The crew launched from NASA Kennedy Space Center on August 1, 2025, on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.
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