The four astronauts making a historic medical evacuation from the International Space Station (ISS) will be coming home in less than a week, NASA has revealed.
Space agency officials announced that Crew-11 would leave the station no earlier than 5pm ET on Wednesday, January 14, roughly one month earlier than their scheduled departure.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule bringing the astronauts home is excepted to splash down off the coast of California around 3.40am Thursday morning.
The sudden exit was triggered by what new NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described as a ‘serious medical condition’ suffered by one of the astronauts which required further treatment back on Earth.
‘Mission managers continue monitoring conditions in the recovery area, as undocking of the SpaceX Dragon depends on spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors,’ NASA said in a statement Friday night.
While NASA did not reveal which astronaut experienced the emergency or what happened, officials said they were ‘erring on the side of caution’ and evacuating the entire Crew-11 team as soon as possible.
Crew-11 includes four astronauts: NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
NASA’s chief medical officer Dr James Polk has said the ailing astronaut is currently in ‘stable’ condition, noting that their medical issue did not occur because of an accident on the station or anything related to their work in space.
This is a breaking story. More details to follow.
Crew-11 before launching to the ISS. Pictured (L to R): Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and NASA’s Zena Cardman
Crew-11’s SpaceX return capsule will depart the International Space Station on Wednesday, January 14
‘It’s mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity,’ Polk explained without going into specifics at a Thursday press conference.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which created the Dragon capsules used to ferry NASA astronauts and cargo to the ISS, confirmed the evacuation plan on social media last night.
Crew-11 arrived at the ISS on August 1, 2025, and their original return date had been scheduled for late February.
NASA has planned for the four astronauts to leave after their replacements from Crew-12 arrived in a new Dragon capsule around February 15.
Isaacman said no decision had been made yet on whether Crew-12’s launch will be moved up because of the medical evacuation.
Until their launch, NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who arrived at the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November 2025, will be maintaining the station.