Earlier this month, NASA announced it had to cancel a scheduled spacewalk, citing a “medical condition” affecting “a stable crew member” aboard the International Space Station.
The mysterious illness ultimately led the space agency to conduct the first medical evacuation of the aging orbital outpost in 25 years of continuous operation, rushing four astronauts back to Earth, a move that reduced the space station’s occupants from seven to just three.
While the medical incident only affected one astronaut, who has not been identified for privacy reasons, all four members of the Crew-11 mission shaved weeks off their time on the International Space Station, landing safely off the coast of San Diego early Thursday morning.
The four astronauts were airlifted by helicopter to Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego and “planned to stay overnight at a local medical facility for further evaluation,” according to a Jan. 16 statement. After “the expected release,” they continued to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they will “continue standard post-flight repair and evaluation.”
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“All crew members remain stable,” the space agency assured. “To protect the crew’s medical privacy, specific details about the condition or individuals will not be shared.”
This is an extremely rare event that highlights the challenges inherent in delivering health care in space. While hundreds of miles from the surface, specialized care is difficult, if not impossible, to perform. While astronauts undergo rigorous EMT-level training to be able to respond to emergencies on the space station, they are not full-fledged medical professionals and can only do so much under the guidance of doctors on Earth.
There is still much to learn about providing care during medical emergencies, especially when it comes to long-duration space exploration missions in deep space. According to a 2022 study, “Substantial knowledge gaps remain regarding the ways in which unexpected in-flight medical events may impact crew health and capabilities and potentially impact the likelihood of mission success.”
As researchers from Northumbria University in Newcastle point out in a recent article dialoguemedical emergencies on the International Space Station are very rare, although they are expected to occur on average once every three years. Studies show that the most common health issues experienced by astronauts are skin irritation, congestion, sleep disruption and in-flight injuries – ironically, most of these are caused by exercise, which is designed to protect astronauts’ long-term health.
Prolonged exposure to microgravity has also been shown to affect astronauts’ vision and blood pressure.
But now that there’s finally a medical emergency on the space station, it’s unclear whether the public — or even the wider medical community — will find out any details.
More information about evacuations: After NASA evacuates, only the skeleton crew remains on the space station
