Jan 8 (Reuters) - A "serious medical condition" with a crew member aboard the International Space Station has led NASA to bring the astronaut and three crewmates back to Earth months earlier than planned, the first such emergency return in the orbiting laboratory's 25-year history, senior space agency officials said.

NASA says a crew member on the International Space Station is unwell. The agency canceled a planned spacewalk for Thursday and is taking the rare step of ending the Crew-11 mission early.

Nasa has said it will return a four-person crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), cutting short their mission a month early because of a "serious medical condition" affecting one of the astronauts.

Crew-11's Crew Dragon capsule will leave the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at around 3:40 a.m. EST (0840 GMT) on Thursday (Jan. 15). This schedule is contingent, however, on good weather in the splashdown zone.

NASA is cutting short a mission aboard the International Space Station after an astronaut had a medical issue.

NASA is opting to bring home the four members of Crew-11 early after one of them suffered a medical incident on board the International Space Station. Without revealing their identity, NASA said the astronaut experienced the issue on Wednesday afternoon,

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