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January 21, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Crew-11 astronauts reflect on ISS medical evacuation and future of human spaceflight<\/p>\n At a press conference, former ISS commander Mike Fincke said Crew-11\u2019s evacuation of the space station left him feeling more confident about human space exploration<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/span><\/p>\n Just a week after their unprecedented return to Earth following a medical issue onboard the International Space Station, the four members of Crew-11 presented a united front, indicating that the future of human spaceflight was bright.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Wednesday, former ISS commander and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke said that the way the crew and ground teams came together to deliver the four astronauts safely back to Earth showed how well prepared humans are to continue to explore space.<\/p>\n \u201cHow we handled everything all the way through … nominal operations to this unforeseen operation really bodes well for future exploration,\u201d Fincke said. \u201cSo when we\u2019re getting ready for Artemis, I am very optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Fincke is one of the four returned crew members\u2014the others are NASA\u2019s Zena Cardman, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov\u2014who were rushed back to Earth weeks ahead of schedule. On Wednesday, the four offered scant details of what exactly happened to trigger their early return to Earth\u2014the first in the history of the ISS.<\/p>\n Fincke said the issue arose as he and Cardman were preparing to undertake a space walk\u2014which would have been Cardman\u2019s first\u2014outside the ISS. Fincke also said that the ISS\u2019s portable ultrasound machine was used to respond to the medical issue.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when we had this emergency, the ultrasound machine came in super handy,\u201d Fincke said, adding the caveat that the ISS does not have the ability to house larger imagers, such as magnetic resonance imaging machines.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do try to make sure that everybody, before we fly, are really, really not prone to surprises. But sometimes things happen, and surprises happen,\u201d Fincke said.<\/p>\n JAXA\u2019s Yui praised his international colleagues for the response to the medical issue. \u201cWe can handle any kind of difficult situation,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is actually very, very good experience for the future of human spaceflight.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking beyond low-Earth orbit, Cardman said she did not think future crews on the ISS would necessarily need new or additional training in light of what happened to Crew-11. But, she said, missions beyond the ISS, to the moon or even further out in space, presented a different question. \u201cI think the farther afield we go as we journey beyond low-Earth orbit, having tools on board to diagnose and treat a myriad of situations is going to be a really interesting problem to solve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cardman emphasized the ISS\u2019s pioneering role in human spaceflight. Looking ahead to future space exploration and science expeditions, \u201cwe\u2019re going to need astronauts to be the eyes and ears and lab notebook for the researchers on the ground,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not always going to be the scientific experts. In fact, we rarely will be,\u201d Cardman said. \u201cThe ISS has been an excellent proving ground for how we get science done.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 21, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Crew-11 astronauts reflect on ISS medical evacuation and future of human spaceflight At a press conference, former ISS commander Mike Fincke said Crew-11\u2019s evacuation of the space station left him feeling more confident about human space exploration By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2724,22334,7694,2284,761,2534,3140,3331,1021,22335],"class_list":{"0":"post-42317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-astronauts","9":"tag-crew11","10":"tag-evacuation","11":"tag-future","12":"tag-human","13":"tag-iss","14":"tag-medical","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-reflect","17":"tag-spaceflight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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