Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
17-01-2026
WASHINGTON: Four astronauts aboard the International Space Station are returning to Earth, more than a month earlier than originally planned.
NASA made the decision to cut SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission short due to an undisclosed medical concern with one of the astronauts; the crew was scheduled to spend a six-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS) and return in late February but they’re now on their way home. Crew-11’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavour, undocked at 5:20 p.m. EST (2220 GMT).
The Crew-11 astronauts now face a roughly 11-hour deorbit trajectory, with an expected splashdown on Thursday (Jan 15) at 3:41 am EST (0841 GMT), off the coast of California, in the Pacific Ocean. You can watch that action, as well as a post-landing press conference scheduled for Thursday at 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 GMT), on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel, as well as here on Space.com.
NASA mission managers polled “go” on Tuesday (Jan 13) to proceed with Crew-11’s undocking, saying in a statement, “Weather is looking excellent for Dragon’s parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California.”
The Crew-11 mission launched to the ISS on Aug 1, 2025, carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. The quartet wasn’t scheduled to depart until the astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-12 arrived to take their place but concerns about a medical situation leading up to a planned Jan 8 spacewalk, or EVA, quickly escalated to NASA’s decision of returning the crew early.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the mission’s end during a press conference the same day as the canceled EVA and crews aboard the ISS began their preparations to leave including a change of command ceremony during which Fincke transferred the symbolic key to the ISS to Roscosmos’ Sergey Kud-Sverchov.
With its departure ahead of Crew-12’s arrival, Crew-11 leaves behind a skeleton crew of three aboard the ISS: Kud-Sverchov and fellow cosmonaut Sergei Mikaev, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Williams. Crew-12 is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 15.
The International Space Station is designed to run best with a crew at of least seven.
The early departure of these four astronauts leaves just three living on the space station at the moment, they are NASA’s Chris Williams along with cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
Those three can still run the ISS, although they will probably need to reduce the scientific work that goes on. Instead, they are likely to focus on general maintenance and housekeeping.
Astronauts are highly trained, and the space station is run with military precision, so the team up there will probably be taking this in their stride.
Astronauts must travel back from the ISS at least in pairs for safety reasons, it’s a dangerous and long journey that requires immense technical skill.
For example, if one person fainted or fell ill during the return flight, they need someone else there to fly the craft but why did all four members of Crew-11 cut short their stay for this medical evacuation?
Space flight relies on a lot of complex logistics. The crew travelled to the ISS on the Dragon Endeavour capsule which remained docked at the ISS during their five-month stay essentially acting as their lifeboat.
If just two had returned on it, it would have left the remaining pair without a craft to return on, problem if another rapid evacuation was needed.
NASA prides itself on putting astronauts’ safety and well-being first, and it won’t have wanted to take any risks. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
