The four astronauts who had been evacuated to the International Space Station (ISS) have safely landed on the ground after their space trip was shortened by one month due to a medical condition that was termed as a serious one.
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, the captain of the crew, was the first to leave the spacecraft, smiling and slightly wobbling on his feet and then lying on a gurney, as usual.
NASA Zena Cardman, Japan Kimiya Yui and Cosmonaut Oleg Platonov were next, waving and smiling at the cameras. “It does feel good to be home,” said Cardman.
The evacuation of astronauts is the first time that has happened since the station was launched into orbit around the Earth in 1998.
The Crew-11 team is now to be given medical checks and then flown back to land after splashdown on the California coastline.
At a news conference following splashdown, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman reported that the ailing astronaut was “doing well” at the moment and in good spirits.
By the previous NASA statements regarding the health of astronauts, the person and the nature of the health problem of the crew member may not be disclosed to the masses.
The ISS has been put under the control of Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and
two other crew members.
On 1 August, the astronauts arrived at ISS with a normal stay of six and a half months. They were supposed to return home in mid-February.
However, last week, Fincke and Cardman were to have a planned spacewalk, but it was cancelled at the last moment. NASA announced several hours later that one of the crew members fell ill.
“It has been a sweet and a bitter experience,” Mr Fincke said when he handed the keys to the ISS to Kud-Sverchjov on Monday.
In a social media statement, he has emphasised that every crewmember on board was stable, safe and in good care.
The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth at a height of 250 miles, completing 16 orbits of our planet every day with a speed of 17,500 miles per hour.
It is operated by five space agencies and conducts a broad scientific research on space as well as the impacts of living in microgravity on animals and plants.
In the case of the ISS, there is some medical equipment there, and astronauts are trained to respond to minor medical problems, but there is no doctor on board.
The evacuation posed a real challenge to the Nasa medical contingency procedures.
It, at any rate, passed, but there can be doubts concerning the efficiency with which the agency would have reacted had the astronaut been subjected to a medical emergency.
This has reduced the ISS to a bare three astronauts – NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, until another four come in February.
“Nevertheless, despite the changes and all the hardships, we will do our work onboard ISS, we will carry out all the scientific work, we will maintain the spacecraft here, whatever happens,” Kud-Sverchkov said on Monday. He then gave the first order – a group hug.
This is the first time in the history of the ISS, which has been permanently crewed for 26 years, that an incident has occurred.
Sabotage of space missions on medical grounds has only occurred twice in the past.
In 1985, a Soviet cosmonaut, Vladimir Vasyutin and his co-workers spent four months earlier than planned on a trip to the Salyut 7 space station, owing to a urologic problem.
And in 1987, Soviet cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin was forced to make an early exit from the Mir space station on account of a heart arrhythmia.
The more humans access space, such as travelling there due to tourism and potentially an occupation of the Moon or even Mars, the more doctors will have to accompany missions, as noted by space experts.
