NASA will bring Crew-11 astronauts back to Earth on Saturday, weeks ahead of schedule, due to a medical issue with an unnamed crew member.

A planned spacewalk by Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Zena Cardman was postponed, as it involved non-essential work on a new solar array.

NASA confirmed the affected astronaut is stable, and the situation did not stem from an operational injury.

Crew-11, which includes colleagues from Japan and Russia, launched on August 1, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket, CNBC has reported.

This early return marks NASA’s first medical-driven crew return since the STS-83 Space Shuttle mission in 1997.