SpaceX Crew Heads Home Early After Unprecedented Medical Emergency

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts back from the International Space Station is set to splash down off the coast of California, ending its mission weeks ahead of schedule after a medical emergency that NASA has described as unprecedented.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Endeavour began its 10-and-a-half-hour descent from orbit at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday and is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning, according to NASA.

On board are NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov. The crew has spent 167 days aboard the space station as part of SpaceX’s 11th crewed mission and NASA’s Expedition 74, which began on December 8.

NASA announced on January 8 that the mission would be cut short due to a serious medical condition affecting one of the crew members. The mission had originally been scheduled to conclude in late February.

The agency has not released further details, citing crew privacy, but NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer James Polk later clarified that the issue was not related to space station systems or operations. According to NASA, this marks the first medical incident of its kind in the agency’s history.

“Always we err on the side of the astronaut’s health and welfare and in this particular case we are doing the same,” Polk said.

Mike Fincke, a retired US Air Force colonel who commanded Expedition 74, echoed that assessment in a post shared on Instagram.

“This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists. It’s the right call, even if it’s a bit bittersweet,” Fincke wrote.

NASA livestreamed the moment Endeavour closed its hatch, undocked from the station, and slowly drifted away from the orbiting laboratory, more than 400 kilometres above Earth. Images shared by the ISS on social media showed the astronauts checking their black-and-white Dragon pressure suits as they prepared for departure.

Livestream coverage is set to resume as the capsule fires its engines to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and deploys its parachutes ahead of splashdown.

Following Crew-11’s return, two Russian astronauts and one NASA astronaut will remain aboard the station to continue Expedition 74. Meanwhile, preparations are already underway for SpaceX Crew-12, which is scheduled to launch in February to rotate in new personnel.