Overview
- The SpaceX Crew Dragon carrying Yui and three crewmates splashed down off California on Jan. 15 Japan time, completing an accelerated return.
- Mission managers moved the landing up by roughly one month after a crewmate reported a medical concern on Jan. 7.
- NASA said the astronaut’s condition is stable and that a Jan. 8 spacewalk was canceled pending ground evaluation.
- The agency described the decision as the first medically driven early crew return in the ISS’s 25-year history.
- Yui concluded just over five months in orbit on his second long-duration ISS stay, including work in Japan’s Kibo lab and support for the HTV-X cargo mission.