Before evacuation for medical reasons: ISS command handed over
Late Wednesday evening, four people are scheduled to leave the ISS prematurely and return to Earth. Belongings are packed, and command has been handed over.
Another group photo of Crew-11
(Image: NASA)
Before the first evacuation of an ISS crew for medical reasons, scheduled for Wednesday, NASA astronaut Michael Fincke has handed over command of the International Space Station. This was announced by his Russian colleague, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, NASA announced. Before their departure, SpaceX Crew-11 has also already packed their equipment and personal belongings into the spacecraft. Afterward, they also went through the steps they needed to complete before their departure. The four are scheduled to leave the ISS on Wednesday shortly after 11 p.m. CET and then splash down off the coast of California after a ten-and-a-half-hour flight. They are to be received there by NASA and SpaceX officials.
A first in ISS history
Crew-11 consists of Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke from NASA, Kimiya Yui from the Japanese space agency JAXA, and Oleg Platonov from Russia. The four launched to the ISS on August 1st and were actually supposed to stay on the space station for several more weeks. Last week, however, NASA announced that they were to cut their stay on the International Space Station ISS short due to a “medical problem” and return to Earth. No further details are available, and it is therefore not publicly known who among the four is affected. However, the responsible chief medical officer of NASA has assured that it is not an emergency and that the issue has nothing to do with their work on the ISS.
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In the 25-year history of the ISS, there has never been such an early departure for medical reasons; only the Soviet Union brought a cosmonaut back prematurely from the Salyut 7 space station in 1985 due to health reasons. To follow Crew-11, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway from NASA, Sophie Adenot from the European Space Agency ESA, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev were scheduled to launch in mid-February. It is still unclear whether the launch will be moved forward. After Crew-11's departure, along with Kud-Sverchkov, his colleague Sergey Mikayev, and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams will remain on the ISS. NASA and Roscosmos divide the crews in such a way that Russians or Americans are never alone on the space station at any time.
(mho)
