ISS astronauts return to Earth in Nasa’s first ever medical evacuation

Four astronauts from the International Space Station have returned to Earth a month earlier than planned after one developed a “serious” medical condition onboard the orbiting outpost.Nasa confirmed the SpaceX-dragon" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="11818" data-entity-type="organization">SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, the Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov, a Russian cosmonaut, splashed down at 8.41am UK time off the coast of San Diego.The space agency has not identified the sick crew member for privacy reasons but said they were in a stable condition. It is the first time Nasa has cut short a mission to the ISS owing to a health problem.“Our timing of this departure is unexpected,” Cardman said before the return trip. “But what was not surprising to me was how well this crew came together as a family to help each other and just take care of each other.”Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the capsule. Photograph: APSoon after splashdown, teams on the recovery ship, and two fast boats, worked to secure the SpaceX-dragon" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="11818" data-entity-type="organization">SpaceX Dragon and hoist it on to the deck so the crew could be brought onboard. Nasa plans to take all four to a nearby hospital for checks.At a post-splashdown press briefing, the head of Nasa, Jared Isaacman, said: “The crew member of concern is doing fine.”After an overnight stay, the crew will return to Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to be reunited with their families and start the standard post-flight reconditioning and evaluations.The Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, parachuted into calm waters in the Pacific Ocean after a 10-hour-plus descent from the space station. In a call to SpaceX flight control on landing, Cardman said: “It’s good to be home.”Nasa astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the capsule. Photograph: APThe crew started their mission onboard the space station in last August and spent 167 days in orbit. On 8 January, Isaacman announced they would be brought home early because one of the astronauts faced a “serious medical condition” that required medical treatment on the ground.Last week the space agency cancelled a planned spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, the station’s commander, which aimed to install new hardware outside the station. Nasa said the medical emergency did not involve “an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations”.Space agency modelling predicts that a medical evacuation will be needed from the International Space Station every three years, but Nasa has not done one in 65 years of spaceflight. There have been other evacuations, however: in 1985, the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin was forced to return early after developing a serious illness onboard the Salyut 7 space station.A 103-second exposure show the capsule carrying the ISS astronauts returning to Earth over Los Angeles. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Nasa astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, who arrived at the space station in November on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, are still on the ISS.The reduced number of crew at the station means Nasa astronauts will stand down from any routine or even emergency spacewalks, which take two people to perform with crucial support from the crew inside.The space station is operated as a partnership between Nasa and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which take turns transporting crew to the station and back. It is one of the few areas where cooperation remains between the two countries.