NASA Crew-11 astronauts splash down after medical issue cuts ISS mission short

Four members of NASA’s Crew-11 mission safely returned to Earth early Thursday after their International Space Station mission was cut short because of a medical issue.

Crew-11—which includes two American astronauts, a Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut—splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego around 12:41 a.m. PT/3:41 a.m. ET after a nearly 10-hour journey.

“On behalf of SpaceX and NASA, welcome home, Crew-11,” NASA mission control said to astronauts as the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule hit the water.

The crew’s mission ended about a month earlier than planned, according to NASA.

This is the first time in NASA’s history that a space mission was cut short because of a medical issue.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the Crew-11 astronauts moments before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy: NASA)

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP

Why was the crew brought back early?

NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov began their mission to the ISS on Aug. 1 with a launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

They were scheduled to stay until mid-to-late February. However, their mission was cut short because of a medical issue experienced by one of the crew members. On Jan. 8, NASA announced its decision to bring the crew home early out of an abundance of caution. NASA officials said they wanted to bring the crew back to Earth so that the astronaut could undergo a complete workup with medical equipment not available on the station.

“The health and the well-being of our astronauts is always and will be our highest priority,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said during the news conference last week.

NASA also canceled a spacewalk that was scheduled for earlier this month.

SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35’S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS

Because of medical privacy concerns, NASA has not said which astronaut had the medical issue or what the medical issue was other than to say the person was in stable condition.

Crew-11 undocked from the space station on Wednesday to begin their return to Earth.

The crew spent less than 170 days on the space station, returning home about a month earlier than planned, according to NASA.

Astronauts in ‘good spirits’ after return to Earth

Members of the crew were taken off of the Dragon spacecraft one-by-one after the splashdown early Thursday.

Fincke was the first to be helped out of the capsule, followed by Cardman, then Yui and Platnov.

They were seen smiling and waving to cameras as they exited the capsule.

The astronauts were taken to a medical facility in San Diego for routine medical evaluations.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke gives a thumbs up as he’s helped off the Dragon capsule. (Courtesy: NASA)

In a post-splashdown news conference, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said that all four astronauts were “safe and in good spirits.”

“All crew members are currently undergoing the routine post-splashdown medical evaluation,” Issacman said. “The crew member of concern is doing fine. We will share updates on their health as soon as it’s appropriate to do so.”

The crew is expected to return to Houston by Friday, pending the outcome of the medical evaluations, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s deputy associate administrator, said in Thursday’s briefing.

NASA officials were asked if they would do anything differently moving forward.

Montalbano said the team would review what happened.

“What we do is, part of the flight readiness review for each mission, is to review lessons learned from the past missions,” he said. “So we’ll do that and those lessons will be carried forward.”

Who’s still on the space station?

The space station will be short-staffed for now, meaning fewer experiments and maintenance will be conducted on the ISS.

The departure of Crew-11 leaves the ISS with just three staff members: two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.

Montalbano said Williams was given extra training this past week.

Crew-12—NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev—is expected to head to the ISS in February.

NASA officials said Thursday they are looking at the timeline for that mission and the upcoming Artemis II mission, which is also scheduled for February.