NASA has postponed a scheduled spacewalk planned for Thursday after a medical concern involving one of its astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The agency confirmed the delay in an official blog post but did not disclose the identity of the crew member or specific details about the health issue.
The spacewalk was set to be the first of 2026 and was to be carried out by Expedition 74 astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman. The two were preparing to leave the station through the Quest airlock to perform critical power upgrade tasks outside the orbiting laboratory.
According to NASA, the medical issue was identified on Wednesday afternoon. While the situation is described as stable, the agency stated that it cannot share further information due to medical privacy rules. NASA added that it will announce a new date for the spacewalk once the matter is fully assessed.
The planned spacewalk was expected to last around six and a half hours. During that time, Fincke and Cardman were scheduled to install modification kits and route cables needed for a future roll-out solar array. Their task list also included installing jumper cables, taking photographs of station hardware, and collecting samples to study microorganisms in space.
This mission would have marked the first spacewalk for Zena Cardman, a 38-year-old geobiologist who joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2017. In preparation, both astronauts had already organized tools and equipment inside the Quest airlock and completed the configuration of their spacesuits, including life support and emergency systems.
Before the postponement, Fincke and Cardman were joined by fellow flight engineers Chris Williams from NASA and Kimiya Yui from Japan’s space agency, JAXA, for a final readiness review with mission controllers on Earth. Williams and Yui were assigned to assist with suit operations, manage airlock pressurization, and monitor the astronauts during the spacewalk.
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NASA emphasized that crew safety remains its top priority and said more updates will be shared once a new schedule is confirmed.
