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January 10, 2026<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA Announces Return Date for Evacuating ISS Astronauts<\/p>\n Four ISS crew members are set to touch down on Thursday after NASA announced the first medical evacuation in the space station\u2019s history<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n The International Space Station, as seen from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on November 8, 2021.<\/p>\n NASA has revealed the return date for four International Space Station (ISS) crew members who are being evacuated from the station after one fell ill with an unknown condition.<\/p>\n The crew are set to begin their return to Earth no earlier than 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14. The SpaceX capsule is then expected to splash down off the coast of California at about 3:40 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 15.<\/p>\n The announcement follows the space agency\u2019s Thursday decision to cut the Crew-11 mission short after an unidentified member of the crew experienced an undisclosed \u201cmedical concern.\u201d The medical evacuation marks a first in the space station\u2019s 25-year history.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The exact timing for the return depends on weather and could change. In a statement, NASA said mission managers are monitoring sea conditions in the spacecraft recovery area. \u201cNASA and SpaceX will select a specific splashdown time and location closer to the Crew-11 spacecraft undocking,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n NASA has not revealed the extent of the sick crew member\u2019s medical issue. When revealing the decision to return the crew early on January 8, Isaacman said the problem was a \u201cserious medical condition\u201d but described the affected crew member as \u201cstable.\u201d<\/p>\n Crew-11 includes two NASA astronauts, the mission\u2019s commander Zena Cardman and its pilot Mike Fincke,as well as Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They had been expected to remain on the ISS until mid-February, when the replacement crew, Crew-12, are still anticipated to arrive.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 10, 2026 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA Announces Return Date for Evacuating ISS Astronauts Four ISS crew members are set to touch down on Thursday after NASA announced the first medical evacuation in the space station\u2019s history By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron The International Space Station, as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[12166,1631,2724,285,7694,2534,3140,3331,1007],"class_list":{"0":"post-41219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-announcement","9":"tag-announces","10":"tag-astronauts","11":"tag-date","12":"tag-evacuation","13":"tag-iss","14":"tag-medical","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-return"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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