'Medical Situation' Will Bring ISS Astronauts Home Early, After All

NASA announced Thursday afternoon that, after further consideration, it has made the unprecedented decision to bring some of its International Space Station astronauts home early due to an ongoing "medical situation" involving a crew member. This will see the astronauts leave the ISS at least five weeks ahead of schedule, leaving just a trio of ongoing crew members to man the station until the replacement crew arrives sometime in February.

Citing a medical concern, NASA cancelled a planned spacewalk from the ISS this Wednesday. This followed a NASA astronaut's request for a private line to discuss a medical issue with NASA. (These conversations are intentionally unavailable for public listening.) NASA announced the delay shortly after and said it was considering only an early return for some of the ISS crew.

However, it's now confirmed that all four of the Crew-11 astronauts who arrived aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule ...