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Space
Space
Science
Brett Tingley

'This is NASA at its finest': Crew-11 astronauts in good shape after smooth medical evacuation and splashdown, agency says

Upport teams raise the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard the recovery ship SHANNON shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov aboard in thePacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif.,Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.

The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station are doing fine after the first-ever medical evaluation from the orbital lab, NASA says.

The Crew-11 mission was cut short when one of its members experienced a medical issue that required them to return to Earth for diagnosis and treatment not available on the space station. NASA decided to bring the four crewmembers home weeks early, and a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour brought the crew of four home safely in a Pacific Ocean splashdown near San Diego on Thursday (Jan. 15). From the time it was announced, NASA has stressed that the medical issue was never an emergency, and reiterated that following splashdown.

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