A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For the first time ever, NASA is ending a space mission due to a, quote, "serious" health problem with an astronaut. All four members of the Crew-11 mission are set to leave the International Space Station about a month early. Brendan Byrne of Central Florida Public Media reports.
BRENDAN BYRNE, BYLINE: The crew member needing the medical attention is part of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission, which launched two U.S. astronauts, one from Japan and a Russian cosmonaut in August. The medical issue, which NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman describes as serious, led to the cancellation of a spacewalk on Thursday.
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JARED ISAACMAN: I've come to the decision that it's in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure.
BYRNE: NASA didn't release the name of the astronaut or details on the medical diagnosis. The agency's chief health and medical officer, Dr. JD Polk, said the crew member is stable.
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JD POLK: This actually had nothing to do with the operational environment in preparing for a spacewalk at all. This was totally unrelated to any operations on board.
BYRNE: Polk said while the space station is equipped with first aid and medical equipment, this particular ailment required a closer look at a medical facility back here on Earth.
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POLK: It's mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity.
BYRNE: It's the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA has cut a mission short due to a health issue. Isaacman is calling it a medical evacuation, but not an emergency return. He says the splashdown is expected to happen over the next few days.
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ISAACMAN: This is exactly what our astronauts train and prepare for. Everybody did exactly as they had prepared for in a situation like this. They're all trained professionals.
BYRNE: Once departed, the station will be left in the hands of just three people from a Soyuz mission - two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut - until Crew-11's scheduled replacement arrives sometime in the next month.
For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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