Early Return of Crew-11 Possible Due to Ailing Astronaut
NASA is considering an early return of Crew-11 because one of the astronauts is ill. For privacy reasons the agency is declining to say who it is or identifying the medical condition. For now, NASA is “evaluating all options.” Yesterday they postponed a spacewalk that was scheduled for today, but it’s not clear if either of those astronauts is the one who is ill.
Crew-11 launched on August 1, 2025 carrying NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Mike Fincke, and Mission Specialists Kimiya Yui (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos).
Their replacements on Crew-12 are preparing to launch next month as part of the regular crew rotations that have kept the ISS permanently occupied for more than 25 years.
NASA said just after midnight today that they would provide an update on their plans within 24 hours.
Also aboard the ISS right now are three crew members who arrived on Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 in November: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
NASA and Roscosmos “swap” crew members routinely so that every Soyuz has an American aboard and every Crew Dragon includes a Russian to ensure one person from each country is aboard at all times to operate the interdependent U.S. and Russian segments of the 420 Metric Ton space station.
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