ISS Medical Evacuation After 25 Years Highlights Space Health Care

The first medically evacuated astronaut in 25 years from the ISS underscores how space health care is evolving: while NASA hasn’t disclosed details of the Crew-11 incident, crews rely on onboard medical officers and telemedicine with Earth experts; space-related health issues—dermatoses, congestion, sleep disruption, and musculoskeletal injuries—are common, and as missions extend deeper into space, Earth-independent medical operations and AI-assisted care will become increasingly important—though the episode also shows how far medicine in space has come.