US EditionNASA astronauts depart space station due to a medical issue, beginning their early trip home
Four astronauts returned early from the ISS due to a medical condition, marking NASA's first medical evacuation from the station after 167 days in orbit.
- On January 14, NASA and SpaceX began returning four Crew-11 astronauts, including Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov, from the International Space Station on a nearly 11-hour trip home.
- NASA's chief health and medical officer James Polk said the decision followed medical review after one crew member developed a stable health concern in the microgravity environment, leading to the cancellation of a January 7 spacewalk and an early return announced January 8.
- The return will include a deorbit burn and parachute landing, with the roughly 11-hour journey ending in a splashdown near San Diego at about 3:40 a.m. ET on January 15.
- Their departure leaves the ISS with a skeleton crew of three—Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and Chris Williams—while NASA seeks to move up Crew-12's launch scheduled no earlier than Feb. 15.
- As the first ISS medical evacuation, this episode underscores gaps in on-orbit care and boosts interest in space medicine and AI diagnostic systems, NASA said.
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"Crew 11" is back. It's the first time since Iss.
Astronauts back on Earth after medical issue cut mission short
Four space station fliers undocked and plunged back to Earth, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean early Thursday off the Southern California coast six days after NASA ordered them home early because of a medical issue.Descending under four large parachutes, Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, co-pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov landed in the Pacific off San Diego at 3:41 a.m. EST, closing ou…
Four astronauts are now safely back on Earth after an evacuation a month early from the International Space Station, ISS.
This is the first time astronauts have been evacuated due to a health problem since the station was launched into Earth orbit in 1998
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