A GROUP of ISS astronauts have splashed down back to Earth after being evacuated due to one member suffering a medical issue.
Four astronauts were forced to leave the space station a month early due to a mystery illness.
Nasa hasn’t revealed the nature of the medical issue due to privacy.
But the space agency has said it’s not due to an injury and not considered an emergency.
It’s the first time in history that a space crew has had to return to earth before their scheduled return date due to a health issue.
American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui arrived on the ISS on August 1 and were supposed to stay on board until mid-February.
The Crew 11 team splashed down off the coast of California and greeted by dolphins during the early hours of Thursday morning local time (8:41am GMT), after an almost 11 hour journey.
Almost 40 minutes later the hatch was opened and the group were rushed off for medical checks – a standard procedure for all crew returns.
Fincke was first to be helped out of the capsule and onto a stretcher, followed by Cardman, Yui and finally Platonov.
In a news conference after the re-entry, Nasa administrator Jared Issacman said the crew member in question specifically “is doing fine”.
“We took this action because it was a serious medical condition,” he said.
Earlier, station commander Fincke called the unprecedented action “bittersweet” as he handed over control of ISS to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
“This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists,” he said.
“It’s the right call, even if it’s a bit bittersweet.”
Problems emerged last Thursday, just before Fincke and flight engineer Cardman were due to head outside the ISS for a marathon 6.5-hour spacewalk to install new external hardware but it was abruptly cancelled.
While the ISS has some medical equipment and astronauts have minor medical training there isn’t a doctor on board.
Astronauts typically spend six to eight months at a time living aboard the ISS.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/15785257/nasa-astronauts-medical-emergency-iss-splashdown/