NASA weighs early return of ISS crew after medical issue forces spacewalk delay - What we know

NASA is assessing whether it may need to bring astronauts home early from the International Space Station after a medical issue involving one crew member prompted the sudden cancellation of the first planned spacewalk of 2026, raising questions about upcoming missions and station operations.

The US space agency confirmed on Wednesday that it was monitoring a “medical concern” affecting a single astronaut aboard the orbital laboratory. While NASA stressed that the situation is stable, it said privacy rules prevented the release of further details or the identity of the crew member.

“Nasa is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk outside the International Space Station,” the agency said in a statement. “The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex. Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member. The situation is stable. NASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.”

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, NASA said it was actively evaluating whether the SpaceX Crew-11 mission might need to end earlier than planned.

“Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission,” the agency said. “These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely. We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours.”

NASA confirmed that the medical situation involves “a single crew member who is stable”. Around the time of the initial announcement, the agency also took offline its live video feeds from the ISS, including audio communications between astronauts and mission control.

They were to be assisted by Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.

The primary task was to prepare the station’s 2A power channel for the future installation of the final pair of ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, scheduled to arrive in 2026.

“Once this mod kit is complete, we have one more to do. So we’ll look at —- we’re looking for a a time, maybe in the spring, but we’re not exactly sure yet where that’s going to fit to finish the last mod kit,” said Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for NASA’s ISS programme.

“It is on orbit, waiting to be installed. We just have to go out there and install it. And then we’ll bring up the two remaining iROSAs together. They fly in a configuration that stacks together in one Dragon trunk.”

“The jumpers that we’re doing have been ‘get ahead’ tasks for a long time,” Spetch said. “They add redundancy to our system so that we can recover activities quicker across our primary power system.”