NASA’s first-ever medical evacuation from space ends with on-target splashdown

Two Americans, a Japanese astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Thursday after 167 days in orbit, cutting short their stay on the International Space Station by more than a month after one of the crew members encountered an unspecified medical issue last week. The early homecoming culminated in an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 3:41 am EST (08:41 UTC) inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The splashdown occurred at 12:41 am local time, minutes after the Dragon capsule streaked through the atmosphere along the California coastline, with sightings of Dragon’s fiery trail reported from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Four parachutes opened to slow the capsule for the final descent. Zena Cardman, NASA’s commander of the Crew-11 mission, radioed SpaceX mission control moments after splashdown: “It feels good to be home, with deep gratitude to the teams who got us there and back.” Cardman and her crewmates departed the space station about 10 hours earlier. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Japanese mission specialist Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov round out the crew. NASA reported a medical concern with one of the crew members last week, and agency officials decided to bring the Crew-11 mission home earlier than planned to provide the person access to more comprehensive treatment on the ground. Good spirits Officials have not identified whose health was in question or what is afflicting the ailing crew member. Whatever the case, the medical issue did not appear to affect the crew’s return to Earth. The astronauts exited the Dragon spacecraft appearing in good health and good spirits after SpaceX raised the capsule from the water and onto a recovery vessel. Joel Montalbano, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for space operations, said the astronauts would head to a medical facility in San Diego before returning to their home base at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA officials were careful to say the medical issue was not an emergency. NASA said the crew member was stable on the ISS, and the situation did not require the astronauts to immediately leave the ISS for the first available return opportunity, a capability NASA and SpaceX can execute in the event of a dire event like a traumatic injury or if the complex was hit by a piece of space junk.

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