Crew-11 to undock from ISS with astronaut who suffered medical issue

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — NASA’s Crew-11 will be undocking from the International Space Station in the facility’s first medical evacuation after an astronaut suffered a medical episode.

The members of Crew-11 — NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke, along with mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov — will get into SpaceX’s Dragon capsule named Endeavour and undock from the space station’s Harmony module at 5 p.m. ET, Wednesday.

Endeavour will be fully autonomous from the moment it undocks to the splashdown, which is expected to happen at 3:40 a.m. ET, Thursday, in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California.

Though, the crew can take control of the capsule if something should come up.

When the quartet enters Earth’s atmosphere, there will be a series of parachute deployments that will slow the Dragon down from an orbital speed of about 17,500 mph (2,816 kph) to 350 mph (563 kph) to about 16 mph (25 kph) when it should softly land in the ocean.

While the crew will remain safe inside, the outside of Dragon will face temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius) once it hits Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft’s special shielding and the air conditioning system will keep the crew safe and cool.

It is not known exactly where Endeavour’s splashdown will be, but it will be off California’s coast.

Depending on where the Dragon will be flying over, some people may hear a sonic boom.

Learn all about sonic booms here.

Why Crew-11’s mission was cut short

Not much is known about the situation, except that last week, one of the Crew-11 members suffered a medical episode, but has since been stable, said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman during a press conference.

During the press conference, NASA officials said that while this is the first time the International Space Station has had a medical evacuation, they would not call this an emergency de-orbit, which would have taken hours to return to Earth.

The medical issue was serious enough to cancel a planned spacewalk that was set for the morning of Thursday, Jan. 8.

During a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, Fincke and Cardman were supposed to install a modification kit and cables for a future rollout of a solar array.

The Crew-11 team was supposed to stay on board the International Space Station until February, when they would be relieved of duty by Crew-12.

Crew-12’s launch might be moved up weeks earlier, but no official date has been given. Originally, that mission’s launch was set for February.

All four members of Crew-11 spent about five months on the space station. They were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket in August 2025.