NASA weighs cutting short International Space Station mission due to astronaut medical issue

NASA is considering an aboriginal instrumentality of its unit aboard the International Space Station (ISS) owed to an unspecific aesculapian issue. 

The uncommon determination comes aft the bureau canceled a spacewalk initially scheduled for Thursday, according to Reuters. 

"Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating each options, including the anticipation of an earlier extremity to Crew-11's mission," a NASA spokesperson said successful a connection connected Wednesday night, NBC News reports.

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The NASA logo is displayed astatine the Jet Propulsion Laboratory connected Oct. 15, 2025, successful La Cañada Flintridge, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The astronaut suffering from the aesculapian concern, who was not identified, remains successful unchangeable condition, the outlet reported.

 In a erstwhile statement, NASA revealed it was "monitoring a aesculapian interest with a unit subordinate that arose Wednesday afternoon."

The four-person Crew-11 unit consists of U.S. astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yu.

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Crew-11 ngo astronauts locomotion retired of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building earlier heading to pad 39A for motorboat to the International Space Station (ISS) astatine the Kennedy Space Center connected Aug. 1, 2025, successful Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Fincke, the mission's commander, and formation technologist Cardman were anticipated to implicit a 6.5 hr spacewalk connected Thursday to instal hardware extracurricular the ISS.

Astronauts typically unrecorded aboard the ISS for stints of six to 8 months, and are equipped with basal aesculapian instrumentality and medications successful the lawsuit of an emergency. The unit acceptable disconnected for their existent eight-month ngo from Florida successful August and were acceptable to instrumentality to Earth successful May.

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Falcon 9, Dragon, and Crew-11 motorboat to the International Space Station astatine LC-39A successful Kennedy Space Center connected Aug. 1, 2025. (Austin DeSisto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Spacewalks are highly strenuous and impact months of training.

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 Last year, NASA canceled a planned spacewalk aft an astronaut reportedly experienced "spacesuit discomfort." In 2021, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei’s had his spacewalk called disconnected owed to a pinched nerve. 

NASA did not instantly respond to Fox News Digital’s petition for comment.