NASA has praised its operators and procedures following the safe recovery of the SpaceX Crew-11 astronauts, who returned home from the International Space Station several weeks ahead of schedule due to an ongoing medical situation with one of the astronauts.
New NASA administrator Jared Isaacman hailed the success, saying, “This is exactly why we train, and this is NASA at its finest” (via Space.com).
The Crew-11 evacuation plan evolved quickly over the past week. Following a postponed spacewalk originally planned for Jan. 8, NASA decided to bring the entire crew home early, citing a health issue affecting one astronaut. Their early departure left just three astronauts from a November Soyuz launch to maintain the station until the SpaceX Crew-12 launch in February.
Credit: NASA
NASA confirmed at a post-landing press conference that all astronauts were doing well, including the crew member of primary concern. The agency has yet to reveal which astronaut was affected or what their malady is, but has promised more details in the near future. The reason the crew was brought home early was to better facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of the individual.
In addition to discussing the medical evacuation itself, Isaacman praised Crew-11’s efforts during their time in space. Citing some 140 experiments they conducted in orbit, he dismissed any notion that the crew’s endeavours were in any way affected by the evacuation ahead of schedule.
“This crew was in space just under 170 days. They performed a little less than 900 hours of science experiments on board. Those are hands-on science experiments,” he said.
NASA’s Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev are the only crew aboard the ISS for the next few weeks while NASA prepares to launch Crew-12 inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The question now becomes which will launch first: Crew-12 or Artemis II? The SpaceX launch could take place any time after Feb. 15, but the mission to and beyond the Moon could be ready as soon as Feb. 6.
