What happens if you have a medical emergency onboard the ISS?

A: On January 15 morning, Crew-11 to the International Space Station (ISS) performed a rapid evacuation, with NASA getting the astronauts back to the earth around one month early due to an undisclosed medical concern with one crew member.

When a medical emergency occurs on the International Space Station (ISS), the crew has a strict protocol it needs to follow, with help from ground support.

Every mission includes at least one Crew Medical Officer (CMO). This astronaut is usually not a doctor but would have received specialised training to perform procedures like stitch wounds and administer injections. The ISS is also stocked with medical kits including some drugs, first aid supplies, and diagnostic equipment like ultrasound machines.

When there is an emergency, the crew contacts flight surgeons at mission control on earth: these are doctors who have access to the astronauts’ medical records as well as real-time health data. If required they can guide the CMO through conducting simple medical examinations and administer treatments through private video and audio channels.

If an illness or injury is too severe to be managed on the station, the final option is immediate evacuation. The crew’s transport capsule, such as a SpaceX Dragon or Soyuz spacecraft, is designated a ‘lifeboat’ and the relevant astronauts can undock from the ISS onboard it, reenter the earth’s atmosphere, and finally splash down or land on the earth within hours.

The Crew-11 return on January 15 demonstrated just such an evacuation.