SpaceX Crew-11 successfully returns home after crew medical evacuation

Early Thursday morning, the crew of SpaceX Crew-11 safely splashed down off the coast of California. The crew completed their long-duration mission on the International Space Station but had it cut short by a handful of weeks due to a crew medical concern, warranting an early return.

SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California, at 3:41 AM ET. The spacecraft began its journey home when its crew closed the hatch between it and the ISS about 12 hours earlier.

Inside the Dragon is SpaceX Crew-11, SpaceX’s 11th crew rotation mission for NASA since it began flying crewed flights back in 2020. Assigned to this flight were NASA astronauts Zena Cardman (commander) and Michael Fincke (pilot), JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

NASA announced on January 8 that it decided to return Crew-11 early due to a medical concern with one of its crew members. Due to medical privacy policies, NASA did not disclose which crew member this included but shared that they were stable and did not need to make the medical evacuation urgent.

What NASA did share was that whatever happened while on station, it was noticeable to other crew members who came to assist the astronaut until they became stable.

This was a first-of-its-kind situation for NASA, between both its time operating the ISS and Space Shuttle missions, and even going back to Skylab, Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury missions. It also came just days into NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s tenure in the top role at the agency.

After splashing down and being recovered by SpaceX marine assets, the crew was all transported to a local hospital, which is not normal; however, it is always an option when crew return from space. The crew will remain there today and tonight for medical checkups before returning to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Some previous Crewed missions have also taken advantage of heading to a hospital post splashdown. However, outside the night stay at the hospital, SpaceX followed a pretty standard set of procedures.

In total, Crew-11 spent 167 days in space, with 165 of those being on the ISS conducting scientific research, spacewalks, and performing station upkeep and maintenance. While the mission was cut short, it was only by about a month, meaning it was still an overall productive mission for NASA and the nation’s taxpayers.

The ISS remains crewed with three members who flew on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last year: two from Russia and one from NASA, astronaut Christopher Williams. They will maintain the station until NASA and SpaceX can launch Crew-12 next month or potentially sooner.