The incident is unprecedented in the history of the ISS, which has been permanently crewed for 26 years.
Space missions have ended early due to health issues just twice before.
Hey BBC, I think you might want to look up “unprecedented” in the dictionary.
In 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues returned four months ahead of schedule from a mission to the Salyut 7 space station due to a urological issue.
And in 1987, a heart arrhythmia caused Soviet cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin to leave the Mir space station early.
Confusingly structured, but it seems like they meant space missions not on the ISS have been cancelled due to medical reasons twice before.
I believe the two previous medical incidents were not ISS missions.
Those two statements are distinctly separate, and accurate. The previous health issues that ended missions early were unrelated to the ISS.
A lot of time and effort goes into ensuring astronaut health and mitigating exposure leading up to missions.
Landing offshore off San Diego around 12:41am PST



