First Medical Evacuation from ISS: Crew-11 Set for January 14 Undocking

In a historic move for the International Space Station's 25-year operations, NASA and SpaceX have scheduled the Crew-11 mission's undocking for no earlier than 5 p.m. ET on January 14, with splashdown off California's coast targeted around 3:40 a.m. ET on January 15, weather permitting.

The early return stems from a medical issue detected on January 7 among the four astronauts: NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA's Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos' Oleg Platonov, who launched August 1, 2025, via SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour for an originally planned late-February handover. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman noted the affected crew member remains "fully stable," but ISS diagnostic limitations in microgravity necessitated the decision.

NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. James Polk clarified the condition is unrelated to injuries or operations, exacerbated by the station's sparse medical tools. Statistically, NASA's Monte Carlo simulations had forecasted such an evacuation roughly every three years, making this long overdue.

Post-departure, a skeleton crew of NASA's Christopher Williams, Roscosmos' Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergei Mikayev will sustain ISS activities for weeks. A planned January 8 spacewalk for solar array work was scrubbed, and NASA eyes accelerating Crew-12's no-earlier-than February 15 launch without delaying the early February Artemis 2 lunar mission.