For the first time in the 27 years that the International Space Station (ISS) has been operating, an astronaut has returned early to Earth for a medical issue. NASA made that decision after detecting a health problem in one of the crew members of the Crew 11 mission on January 7th while they were on the ISS.
For privacy reasons, the US space agency has not revealed nor plans to reveal the identity of the affected astronaut or the nature of the issue, but the astronaut is already on Earth to receive treatment. He returned with his three mission companions on Thursday morning, and after spending a day at a hospital in San Diego, they will go to Houston on Friday to reunite with their families. If this problem had not arisen, they would have returned to Earth in approximately a month.
Since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin inaugurated the era of space exploration on April 12, 1961, some health problems have arisen among astronauts in space, but only in a couple of cases has a mission been shortened for this reason. On both occasions, the decision was made by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
In 1985, cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin and his colleagues had to urgently return to Earth and end their mission on the Salyut 7 space station four months earlier than planned due to a urological problem related to a prostate infection that caused inflammation and fever. Two years later, cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin left the Mir space station five months earlier than scheduled due to a cardiac arrhythmia.
Until now, NASA had not had to evacuate any of its astronauts due to a medical problem.
Given the complexity of space travel and the inherent risks, there is little room for improvisation. That is why astronauts are trained to be able to autonomously solve all kinds of safety-related issues, including how to deal with some medical problems. Much of the research conducted on the ISS focuses on issues related to human health, both to protect astronauts and to prepare for long-duration missions such as future trips to Mars.
In addition to having very strict protocols to minimize accidents in spacecraft and on the ISS, one of the requirements for flying to space is that astronauts must be in very good health and in excellent physical condition, a requirement that has contributed to the few medical problems in space.
Another measure that has prevented headaches is the two-week quarantine they must observe before boarding a spacecraft to prevent them from developing a possible cold or flu in space, and infecting their crewmates, which could jeopardize the mission. It already happened at the beginning of the space race, during the Apollo 7 mission, launched on October 11, 1968, with the aim of testing the propulsion system of the spacecraft to prepare for the Moon landing. The crew was composed of commander Walter M. Schirra and Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham.
The Apollo 7 launch went well but after 15 hours, Schirra caught a severe cold that soon spread to Eisele and Cunningham, according to NASA. As the space agency recalls in the article that remembers this 11-day mission, "a cold is uncomfortable enough on Earth, but in weightlessness, it presents a different problem. Mucus accumulates, fills the nasal passages, and does not drain out of the head. The only relief is to blow forcefully, which is painful for the eardrums."
The Apollo 7 crew had aspirin and decongestants to treat the cold, but this health issue heightened the tension between Commander Schirra and the Houston Control Center. Disagreements that were followed by the American people, as it was the first mission to be broadcast.
However, in an interview with this newspaper in 2019, Walter Cunningham stated that he had not fallen ill: "Walter [Schirra] did have a cold, Donn was unwell for some time, but I know I didn't have it. In the Control Center, they always treated us as if all three of us were sick, I don't know why, but they always said it," said the astronaut, who passed away in 2023.
The medical crises that led to the early return of cosmonauts in 1985 and 1987 were not the only emergencies that the Russian space agency has had to face. Four months after the serious fire that broke out on the Mir space station on February 23, 1997, forcing the crew to use gas masks until they could extinguish the fire, a Progress cargo ship went off course during a maneuver and collided with the orbital station, causing an air leak that took time to locate. The Spektr module had to be closed, resulting in a loss of electricity.
During this crisis, which began on June 25, 1997, it was discovered that the commander of the orbital station, Vasili Tsibliev, 43, was suffering from a cardiac arrhythmia, which Russian doctors on the ground attributed to "accumulated fatigue" and the "psychological responsibility" assumed by this former Russian Air Force military officer after the collision between the Progress ship and the Mir station, which he was supposed to lead the repair of. Doctors treated him with an antiarrhythmic drug (etmozin) and with benzodiazepines (Tsenozimpam and Rudotel), as detailed by Igor Goncharov, the doctor responsible for the health of this mission.
During the early years of the International Space Station (ISS) operation, several astronauts experienced various discomforts and health problems, such as headaches, eye itching, rhinitis, and allergic reactions initially attributed to the adaptation process to space but later raised concerns that the orbital platform might be affected by "sick building syndrome."
In 2003, NASA technicians found that the systems to control air and water quality on the ISS were not functioning properly, and also that the devices to measure heart rate or the defibrillator were not in good condition.
Treatment with blood thinners
Due to privacy concerns, the identity of the first astronaut successfully treated in space for a thrombus in the neck was not disclosed, nor was this medical issue reported. His case came to light through a scientific study in 2020 that described how Dr. Stephan Moll, from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, successfully treated a deep vein thrombosis in the jugular vein of a crew member, administering treatment for 90 days.
The blood clot was asymptomatic and was discovered incidentally during a neck ultrasound test as part of an experiment investigating how fluids redistribute in the body in the absence of gravity. This medical issue was detected when the astronaut had completed two of the six months he was supposed to spend on the ISS.
He was treated for 40 days with the anticoagulant enoxaparin, which was available on the ISS, until another spacecraft arrived with a different drug, apixaban, which he stopped taking four days before returning to Earth to avoid risks.
A Brief Hospitalization in 2024
The most recent medical situation reported involving an astronaut took place in October 2024, when a member of the Crew 8 mission, who had spent eight months on the ISS, was briefly hospitalized upon returning to Earth for a non-serious medical issue that was not specified. The space agency did not disclose the identity of the affected astronaut on that occasion either, as the mission involved three NASA members - Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratty Jeanette Epps, and the Russian Alexander Grebenkin. However, the affected individual was not evacuated for the medical problem and was hospitalized after the mission ended.
Arguably, one of the most dangerous situations in recent years was experienced in 2013 by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano from the European Space Agency (ESA) during a spacewalk that nearly ended in tragedy. A water leak in Parmitano's spacesuit led to the cancellation of the spacewalk. A NASA report released months later detailed that as soon as he went outside the ISS, water entered his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, making breathing difficult. According to the technicians who investigated the incident, Parmitano's calm demeanor while his helmet was filling with water likely saved his life: "Luca's composed behavior while his helmet was filling with water possibly saved his life."