Four astronauts safely returned to Earth early Thursday, capping a dramatic and unusual week in space that required the crew to leave the International Space Station about a month earlier than planned because of a medical issue that arose in orbit.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, at 3:41 a.m. ET after a nearly 11-hour journey.
“On behalf of SpaceX and NASA, welcome home, Crew-11,” mission controllers radioed to the astronauts moments after their Dragon capsule hit the water.
Their return was the first time in the space station’s 25-year history that a mission was cut short because of a medical issue.
In a post-landing news briefing, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said all four astronauts were “safe and in good spirits.”
“All crew members are currently undergoing the routine post-splashdown medical evaluation,” he 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.”
Because of medical privacy concerns, NASA has not disclosed the identity of the affected crew member or given any details about the medical incident.
Isaacman called it a “serious situation” in orbit, prompting the space agency to make the rare decision to bring the astronauts home early. He said, however, that the crew member in question has been safe and stable ever since.
At a news briefing last week, Isaacman said the decision to bring the crew members back was made out of an abundance of caution.
The medical issue forced NASA to call off a planned spacewalk on Jan. 8, which was to have Cardman and Fincke perform upgrades to the exterior of the ISS. A second spacewalk, originally scheduled to take place Thursday morning, has also been postponed.
Before he left the orbiting outpost, Fincke said he and his colleagues were “stable, safe and well cared for.”
“This was a deliberate decision to allow the right medical evaluations to happen on the ground, where the full range of diagnostic capability exists,” Fincke wrote in a statement on LinkedIn. “It’s the right call, even if it’s a bit bittersweet.”
The astronauts returned to Earth in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that they flew to the space station in.
The journey home was a smooth one, with mission controllers reporting “pristine weather conditions” at the splashdown site off the coast of California. The capsule’s drogue and main parachutes successfully deployed minutes before landing, slowing the spacecraft before it hit the water.
