‘We can handle any kind of difficult situation’: Crew-11 astronauts say 1st medical evacuation from ISS had a silver lining

The astronauts of NASA’s most recent mission to the International Space Station (ISS) sat down today (Jan. 21) to discuss their time in orbit, as well as their untimely departure.

NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov launched to the ISS on SpaceX‘s Crew-11 mission in early August of last year, for what was planned to be a 6.5-month stint aboard the orbital lab. The quartet returned to Earth shy of that goal, however, due to a medical issue that one of them experienced.

The astronauts splashed down in their Crew Dragon capsule on Jan. 15, about a month before their replacements aboard Crew-12 were expected to launch on their own six-month mission. Crew-11 was the first mission to the ISS ever cut short due to astronaut health issues, and it was therefore a critical demonstration of their training and preparedness, the astronauts said.

“This is actually a very, very good experience for the future of human spaceflight,” Yui said during a post-mission press conference today.

The fact that Crew-11 returned to Earth safely under such unprecedented circumstances shows that astronauts and mission control “can handle any kind of difficult situation,” he added.

The ISS has been continuously occupied in low Earth orbit since November 2000. That this was the first medical evacuation ever needed speaks not only to the training of NASA’s and other space agencies’ astronauts, but also the resources and preparedness of the station itself to deal with unexpected medical issues.

While NASA and the Crew-11 astronauts aren’t disclosing the nature of the medical situation or whom it affected, citing privacy concerns, Fincke did say during today’s press conference that the station’s ultrasound machine played an important role.

“When we had this emergency, the ultrasound machine came in super handy. So I’d recommend portable ultrasound machines in the future, for sure, for all spaceflights,” Fincke said. “It really helped.”

Such medical diagnostic and treatment technologies will be crucial on missions that send humans deeper into space, where a quick return to Earth isn’t possible. And NASA is deep into the planning of such missions. Its Artemis program, for example, aims to put astronauts on the moon just a year or two from now, and to eventually establish one or more bases on the lunar surface.

Crew-11’s experience helps builds confidence that we can pull off such ambitious exploration feats, Fincke said.

“I’m very proud of the space station that we built and what humans can do, but how we handled everything all the way through — through nominal operations to these unforeseen operations — really bodes well for future exploration,” he said during today’s briefing, which took place in Houston. “We’re a well-honed machine here at the Johnson Space Center and around the world. So, when we’re getting ready for Artemis, I am very optimistic.”

Forgoing the usual crew overlap period typically practiced with the arrival of a new group of astronauts to the ISS before another’s departure, the Crew-11 astronauts left behind only a skeleton crew of three aboard the station. Operating on adjusted schedules to accommodate the lack of crew availability, those three are awaiting the launch of Crew-12, which is expected no earlier than Feb. 15, to bring the station back up to its normal crew complement of seven.