
Four space station crewmates boarded their Crew Dragon ferry ship Wednesday and undocked kick off an expedited return to Earth on Thursday, cutting their mission short because of an undisclosed medical issue.
Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, co-pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov bid farewell to three crew members staying behind and floated into their Crew Dragon capsule, closing the ferry's hatch at 3:29 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
"What an adventure we've had together," Fincke radioed. "I think what I'm going to remember most is the camaraderie we've had across the planet that's really symbolic of 25 years of continuous habitation aboard the space station. I'm glad we can all work together in space."
Left to operate the International Space Station are Soyuz 28 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and his two crewmates, cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
Addressing her Expedition 74 crewmates, Cardman said she knows the space station is in good hands. She told ground controllers: "Your International Space Station is a testament to the power of cooperation, and it's been an absolute privilege to take part in this endeavor ... Crew 11 is coming home."
After completing final preparations, the Crew Dragon undocked and slowly backed away from the space-facing port of the station's Harmony module at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.
If all goes as planned, the capsule's braking rockets will fire for 13 minutes and 15 seconds starting at 2:51 a.m. Thursday. The rockets will slow the ship by about 196 mph, just enough to drop the far side of the orbit into the atmosphere on the planned reentry trajectory. After a northwest-to-southeast plunge across the Pacific Ocean, the crew is expected to splash down off the coast of Southern California at 3:41 a.m., closing out a 167-day stay in space.
After the Crew Dragon is hoisted aboard a SpaceX recovery ship, the crew will be helped out of the cramped ferry ship for initial medical checks before being flown to shore by helicopter and eventually back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
It's unclear whether an examination or diagnostic work will first be done in California, after one of the crew members experienced a medical issue last week. NASA managers decided the issue was serious enough to bring the crew home early for a more extensive diagnostic evaluation. The astronaut in question was not identified, and no details about the medical issue were revealed due to NASA's strict medical privacy guidelines.
NASA's chief medical officer said it was not an emergency return in any normal sense, but the decision marked the first time in NASA history that a spaceflight was cut short due to a medical concern.
Cardman and her crewmates, who launched to space on Aug. 1, 2025, were originally expected to return to Earth around Feb. 20 to wrap up a 202-day mission.
In a long post on LinkedIn, Fincke said the crew was in good shape, but he added the decision was "the right call." All four astronauts looked to be in good spirits during a change of command ceremony Monday when Fincke officially turned the space station over to cosmonaut Kud-Sverchkov.
In a post Wednesday on X, Yui sent down pictures of snow-capped Mount Fuji, with the caption: "Hello! The day has finally arrived for our departure to Earth."
"I haven't had a chance to photograph daytime Japan recently, but at the very last moment, we passed over the Pacific side of Japan," he said. "Mount Fuji bid us farewell, adorned with a touch of crimson makeup from the setting sun."
The space station is continuously staffed by a crew of seven: Three launch and return to Earth aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft and four fly to and from the lab aboard NASA-managed SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ships.
Both spacecraft serve as lifeboats during a crew's long-duration space station stay. If a Soyuz or Crew Dragon flyer gets sick or is seriously injured aboard the station, that person is joined by all of his or her crewmates for the flight back to Earth.
With that possibility in mind, NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, agreed to fly one NASA astronaut aboard each Soyuz and one Russian cosmonaut aboard each Crew Dragon. The seat-swap arrangement ensures that at least one Russian and one American are always on board the station to operate equipment in their respective modules should one crew ship depart early.
With the departure of Crew 11, Williams will be on his own managing the U.S. segment of the space station until Crew 12 arrives in February.
Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, a space station veteran, rookies Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and veteran cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are officially scheduled for launch Feb. 15. However, NASA and SpaceX are looking into moving that launch up a few days amid work to ready a Space Launch System rocket for launch as early as Feb. 6 to send four astronauts on a looping fight around the moon.
The high-profile Artemis 2 mission will be the first to send astronauts to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years.
Sneak peek: The Blackout Murder of Livye Lewis
NEUESTE BEITRÄGE
- 1
What's changing about healthcare in 2026 — Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, premiums, and enrollment deadlines17.12.2025 - 2
Pick Your Number one Sort Of Music05.06.2024 - 3
Ultra-Orthodox protests erupt across Israel on haredi IDF enlistment day04.01.2026 - 4
What you need to know about flu treatments as cases spike across the US31.12.2025 - 5
7 Powerful Techniques to Boost Efficiency with Your Cell Phone: A Thorough Aide30.06.2023 - 6
They relied on marijuana to get through the day. But then days felt impossible without it25.11.2025 - 7
Insight: Pills, TikTok, weight-loss apps and the consumer-driven future of GLP-1s29.12.2025 - 8
‘Inoculation’ helps people spot political deepfakes, study finds28.03.2026 - 9
Releasing Learning Experiences: A Survey of the \Learning Made Fun\ Instructive Application10.08.2023 - 10
Doulas play essential roles in reproductive health care – and more states are beginning to recognize it10.12.2025 - 11
New science points to 4 distinct types of autism26.12.2025 - 12
Why is Jerome Powell being investigated? Making sense of the DOJ's probe into the Federal Reserve chair.12.01.2026 - 13
The Force of Positive Reasoning: Day to day Attestations01.01.1 - 14
NASA's moon mission has begun — here's what's ahead for the Artemis II astronauts01.04.2026 - 15
Finding the Universe of Computer generated Reality: Individual Encounters25.09.2023
Ähnliche Artikel
Artemis 2 captures historic 'Earthset' photo | Space photo of the day for April 7, 202607.04.2026
Tesla Germany Registrations Quadruple to 9,252 Vehicles in Best March Ever07.04.2026
What's going on with Katseye? The Manon Bannerman hiatus drama, explained.07.04.2026
Two IDF officers, civilian face indictment in alleged Gaza aid-truck smuggling scheme07.04.2026
West Palm Beach Shorecrest, renderings of downtown waterfront condo07.04.2026
Artemis II astronauts make long-distance call to the space station as they head home from the moon07.04.2026
Tuesday, April 7. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine07.04.2026
The Eastern Bongo, Kenya’s Rare Forest Antelope on the Brink07.04.2026
U.K. blocks Kanye West from entering Britain to headline now canceled festival: What led to the ban07.04.2026
Russia confirms 16 Cameroonian soldiers killed in Ukraine war07.04.2026
First Phosphate advances battery-grade phosphate project as analysts highlight strategic Federal support07.04.2026
After fleeing past Hezbollah fighting, some Israelis on northern border vow to stay07.04.2026
'Unreal' solar eclipse: Artemis 2 crew just saw one of the rarest sights in spaceflight history07.04.2026
Chinese construction workers in Israel: 'I’d rather be bombed than live in poverty'07.04.2026
Broken toilet, T-shirts on windows and collecting saliva: The weirdness of daily life aboard Orion07.04.2026
Czech Republic caps fuel prices amid Iran war energy crisis07.04.2026
NASA releases stunning new images captured by the Artemis II moon mission, including 'Earthset' and a solar eclipse from space07.04.2026
Amid Iran war, 53 of Israel's future scientists showcase projects in Jerusalem contest07.04.2026
Iranian-linked drone attack kills Kurdish couple in northern Iraq07.04.2026
Thousands of small fish defy gravity to climb Congo waterfall07.04.2026


































