NASA have provided an update on the health of an astronaut who had a 'serious medical condition' which resulted in their team having an early evacuation from the International Space Station.
The nature of this condition and the identity of the astronaut are being kept private due to 'medical privacy considerations', but information that was permitted to be shared would be provided in the interest of transparency.
The crew consisted of NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimia Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
They splashed down off the coast of California earlier today (15 January) and an update on the crew's condition was provided as they have been brought out of the capsule.
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NASA administrator Jared Isaacman explained that the four astronauts were 'going through the standard, post splashdown medical checks' and that the crewmember who had been brought back for a medical issue was 'doing fine'.
Their evacuation from the ISS is the first in the space station's history as the decision was made to bring them back with the health issue having health experts 'erring on the side of caution'.
Previous health issues experienced by astronauts have been able to be treated on board the ISS with medical supplies available, including a blood clot in the jugular vein of an astronaut's neck.
However, in this case one of the members of Crew-11 was deemed serious enough that they ought to cut short their months long mission in space and return to Earth.
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Isaacman said NASA expected all four astronauts to leave hospital together, saying that while there were 'a lot of circumstances' they could prepare for and there were medical kits there would be 'some circumstances' which required 'the option to come home'.
He added that the astronauts were now going through the 'standard, post splashdown medical checks'.
NASA's deputy associate administrator Joel Montalbano revealed that the decision to bring the crew back from space was made 'about a week ago'.
While only one of the four had the 'serious medical condition' all of Crew-11 had to return as astronauts must return in at least pairs on their lengthy return to Earth, if something happened to one of them then there'd need to be at least one other person inside the capsule to operate it.
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Since they'd travelled up to the ISS on the Dragon Endeavour capsule which had stayed docked at the space station in the months since they arrived if only two of them returned to Earth the other two would have nothing to return home in.
Joe Harker