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1h ago

NASA and SpaceX Set Tonight’s Crew-11 Undocking for First ISS Medical Return

NASA says ground-based evaluation is required for a crew health concern, with the astronaut described as stable.

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The four crew members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station train inside a Dragon training crew spacecraft at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. From left to right: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui.
© SpaceX via NASA
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Overview

  • Undocking is targeted for no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST on Jan. 14, with splashdown off Southern California planned around 3:41 a.m. ET on Jan. 15, pending weather and recovery conditions.
  • Returning aboard SpaceX’s Dragon are Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov, with a deorbit burn expected at about 2:51 a.m. ET and standard post-splashdown medical checks.
  • ISS command transferred from Mike Fincke to Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on Jan. 12, and station staffing will temporarily drop to three—Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikayev, and NASA’s Chris Williams—until Crew-12 arrives.
  • NASA is withholding the affected astronaut’s identity and medical details for privacy and notes the issue requires diagnostics not available on the station, marking the first early medical return in the ISS program.
  • Planned U.S. spacewalks are postponed, and NASA will stream hatch closure, undocking, reentry, and a post-landing briefing on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.