WASHINGTON, 15th January, 2026 (WAM) -- NASA started bringing a four-member astronaut crew back to Earth on Wednesday due to a medical issue, marking the first such early return in the history of the International Space Station (ISS).
The astronauts undocked from the ISS aboard a Crew Dragon capsule operated by SpaceX, NASA live footage showed.
US astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the US state of California after about 11 hours of flight on Thursday.
NASA said last week it had first cancelled a spacewalk at the ISS at short notice because of health concerns involving one crew member before deciding to return the entire four-person crew to Earth ahead of schedule.
Crew-11 has been aboard the ISS since early August and had been scheduled to remain there for several more weeks.