NASA’s Crew-11 mission has officially come to an end. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down on January 15 off the coast of California at 2:12 pm IST [3:42 am EST], ending a 10.5-hour journey from the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft autonomously undocked from the station at 3:50 am IST [5:20 pm ET, Jan 14] for an early end to the mission.
Dragon’s four main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/PAr3laJGN5
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2026
“The mission is returning home earlier than originally planned as teams monitored a medical concern with a crew member currently living and working aboard the orbital laboratory. The crew member is stable,” NASA said in a statement.
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @zenanaut, @AstroIronMike, @Astro_Kimiya, and Oleg! pic.twitter.com/2Yrgvy6DJO
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2026
Crew members Zena Cardman (USA), Mike Fincke (USA), Oleg Platonov (Russia) and Kimiya Yui (Japan) launched to the ISS on August 1, 2025. They were supposed to stay aboard the orbital lab beyond mid-February, however, a medical concern with one of the members forced NASA to bring them back sooner. The agency has not revealed the name of the affected astronaut or the nature of his/her illness.
SpaceX concludes historic Crew-11 mission
This mission entailed the first ever medical evacuation in the history of the ISS. With Crew-11’s departure, the station is now left with just three astronauts. NASA’s Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will manage ISS operations until the arrival of Crew-12 astronauts in mid-February.
Prior to the exit, ISS commander Fincke handed over the responsibilities to Kud-Sverchkov who launched to the ISS in November, 2025.
Crew-11 was the first long-duration mission for Cardman and Platonov, who have now spent 167 days in space. Yui has now a total experience of 309 days living in space, second after Fincke who has logged 548 days with Crew-11’s completion.
After extraction from the Dragon spacecraft, the astronauts will meet with NASA’s flight surgeon for health inspection before heading for weeks-long rehabilitation to get used to Earth’s gravity.
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