Nasa is considering a rare early return of its crew from the International Space Station over an unspecified medical issue involving one of the astronauts, after cancelling a planned spacewalk that had been scheduled for Thursday, the agency said.
A Nasa spokesperson said the astronaut with the medical concern, whom she did not identify, was in a stable condition on the orbiting laboratory.
"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 spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday night.
Nasa said in an earlier statement it was “monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon”.
Surely they screen astronauts for that sort of problem on the 3-axis gimbal and the Vomit Comet and whatnot before actually sending them to a long mission on the ISS, right?
I can only imagine that’s the case, but it also seems plausible that it could kick in when you’re in space and not earth, since you actually get a break from the Vomit Comet and other training exercises.
It’s probably something else regardless, inescapable vertigo was just my first thought.