NASA SpaceX Dragon Crew-11's Historic Medical Evac From ISS Successful With Splashdown In The Pacific (WATCH)

At 3:41 PM EST (or 2:11 PM IST), the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down carrying Crew-11’s NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The splashdown occurred off the coast of San Diego, California, in the cold Pacific. Ahead of the splashdown the spacecraft made a short sonic boom announcing its arrival in the Earth’s atmosphere, following which the Drogue parachutes were deployed to decelerate the Dragon. The Crew-11 made an early return as NASA did its historic-first medical evacuation. The exact medical condition and affected astronaut is not disclosed. Ahead of their first spacewalk of the year on January 8, the EVA was cancelled and subsequently the mission too. On January 12th, the mission command was handed over to cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov , by Col. Mike Fincke. NASA and SpaceX livestreamed the event on its channels including social media on X/Twitter, which you can scroll down and access. A post-splashdown presser will be held soon with administrator Jared Isaacman addressing the media. Meanwhile the crew will have an overnight hospital stay before returning to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Dragon will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego, California in ~10.5 hours at 12:41 a.m. PT on Thursday, January 15 pic.twitter.com/ucwGfTFhMO - SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 14, 2026 Dragon coming in like a blazing meteor visible from San Francisco https://t.co/18eXfJV2DK - Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2026 Dragon will announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean → https://t.co/25MrsXiVQM - SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 14, 2026 Dragon’s four main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/PAr3laJGN5 - SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2026 Splashdown of Dragon confirmed - welcome back to Earth, @zenanaut , @AstroIronMike , @Astro_Kimiya , and Oleg! pic.twitter.com/2Yrgvy6DJO - SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2026 Welcome home, Crew-11! At 3:41am ET (0841 UTC), the @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California. pic.twitter.com/8LFpdKwizc - NASA (@NASA) January 15, 2026 Watch Dragon and Crew-11 return to Earth → https://t.co/DIuBob7vs6 https://t.co/zo1FJixd0b - SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2026 See Also: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11's Evac & Return Scheduled After Medical Emergency; Watch The Event LIVE Here Cover and all images: SpaceX & NASA

Preview: ~377 words