NASA says that is considering ending the Crew-11 mission earlier than planned after an astronaut fell ill aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In a brief statement, NASA said that the concerned person’s health is stable, although, it didn’t reveal the name of the astronaut or what caused the crisis. Owing to the health scare, a spacewalk scheduled outside the ISS on January 8 had to be postponed.
“The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex. Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member,” the agency stated. “The situation is stable. NASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.”
NASA is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk outside the @Space_Station. A new date for the upcoming spacewalk will be shared later. Details: https://t.co/HnhQWBM5RC pic.twitter.com/I4uicjSm76
— NASA (@NASA) January 7, 2026
Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, members of the Crew-11 mission, were scheduled to conduct the 6-hour spacewalk at 6:30 pm IST [8 pm EST] today to “prepare the 2A power channel for future installation of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays.”
If NASA goes ahead with its decision, Crew-11 astronauts will return before the launch of Crew-12.
“As an update to our earlier communication regarding a medical situation aboard the International Space Station, the matter involved a single crew member who is stable. 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,” NASA said in an update. “These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely. We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours.”
Crew-11 is NASA’s 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS which was launched by SpaceX on August 1, 2025. It is being commanded by Cardman, with Fincke as pilot and Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov as mission specialists.
Today’s spacewalk would have been the first for Cardman and the 10th for Fincke – tying him for the most spacewalks by a NASA astronaut.
Crew-11 will be followed by Crew-12 which is targeted for launch no earlier than February 15. It also has four astronauts – two from the US (Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway) and one each from Europe (Sophie Adenot) and Russia (Andrey Fedyaev). Hathaway and Adenot will fly on their first six-month space mission.
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